Chriskaw440

well I may be frustrated with it but I'm not throwing in the towel just yet...I'm just pressed for free time to do anything more with it. Maybe I just haven't secured the ground good enough yet. besides that....the suspension needs work....shocks are new but I can tell it needs new suspension components now....ugh. never enough time....

Well now it seems it's wanting to start acting up again...not as bad as before but still....it does this to me every time I work on it. Runs great for a week or two, then gradually starts back to having this mother f*ckin idle issue. Anyone want to buy it? I'm tired of wrestling with it and its too old to keep dumping money into.

the other day it started doing it again (believe it or not....at wal mart! no joke) and I thought...well crap! but when I checked on my temporary new ground wire, it was already about frayed/broken off from the bolt I had attached it to, from vibration and being very small gauge speaker wire (I had not yet gone to get proper wire connectors) and only had one wire strand still holding it on. So for now I just used a heavier gauge speaker wire that's about twice the thickness and replaced it. I have not driven it yet but I have a pretty good feeling that was the problem. Im just so pressed for any free time lately to work on my truck so I can only manage to slap on a 'quick fix' until the weekend when I get a proper wire connector and my soldering iron out. -Chris

A popular problem that is very similar to yours, that I have been having is the erratic high idle 'whenever it wants to!' ...and mine is a 1990 5spd. We have narrowed it down to a crappy ground wire in the MAF wire harness/connector at the MAF sensor. I cut my harness open, added a temporary ground wire to it (black wire in middle is ground...at least on the 1990's) and just ran it to the frame where another ground already exists....and my wacked-idle issues are about 98% fixed. I say 98% because I did not solder or make a very permanent replacement wire....yet....so its not the greatest of patches at the moment...but it sure idles more normally now! Others in this group have had same problems and there is a pigtail adapter thing out there you can buy for around 20 bucks (if thats the problem with yours...) I did all that seafoam junk and clean this and clean that but before you waste money trying fixes that will not work...check grounds first. My thoughts are..if it was caused by gunk or blockage due to carbon or whatever build up....your idle would be very erratic and bouncing around a lot (stumbling) instead of a more smooth idle, just too high. To me that sounds like a poor ground connection or loose connection since it is random at times. (please don't believe all the 'magic in a bottle' add to your tank or oil 'fixes'. They've already been scientifically debunked as garbage. Only things I would consider and have used is fuel injection cleaner and seafoam, but do NOT run the engine down the highway like the bottle says (seafoam) for a bunch of miles...its designed to break down oil and sludge, therefore breaking down GOOD oil too...so just let it idle and rev a few times not under load. Seafoam is not a lubricant.)

still keeping an eye on it everytime I come to a stop...and so far its still better. I can tell that sometimes it 'wants' to idle up but wont...possibly because I don't have the greatest gauge wire or connection going on...yet. But I'm still much happier with it. I've been wanting to replace my Spark plug wires too since everything else has been replaced but them....and they've been on there a long time. Once the engine is at operating temp...and I take it out of gear and off the gas...the idle drops right down to normal range immediately and stays there. I'll post a pic soon of my 'el cheapo MAF ground wire patch' soon... thanks, chris

A week ago or so I opened up the harness like you mentioned and simply ran another wire from the middle black wire connection in the harness (ground) to a ground point on the frame. So far it has been much better! It only tried to randomly 'idle up' once. This was just a temporary 'patch' I tried without destroying anything lol...and I used a thin gauge speaker wire as thats all I had on hand. I plan to make it a more permanent patch when I have time. But like I said so far....It's acting tons more normally.....even in the wal mart parking lot! thanks, chris

cool thanks...will give it a try soon. I've since I have been investigating this harness issue and digging into it...moving it around etc etc...its been acting up much less lately....but I know its just temporary.

did I hear the word ROTARY on here? I used to own 3 RX-7s.....all first generations... '81 '82 and '84 (84 GSL) I autocrossed one for a while, and restored all of them myself.....I miss my rotaries! SO easy to work on....and the 4 barrel carbs were cool too I had one of my new lifters get toasted like that too...I bought new ones...fitted each one to each lifter plate hole where there was no resistance been ok ever since but I still get some noise at start up when cold and a little when under load but oh well....thanks to the economy I cant afford to get all new lifter stuff like lifters, plate, rocker arm sets etc etc. Still runs great....I just turn up the sub woofer. Wish my wife didn't make me sell my last RX-7....it even had Recaro seats and they all had racing exhaust.

gotta love the technology from back then. Mine as pretty nasty with buildup and I'm not going to lose any sleep over it not being there any more

Nice....can you show a photo maybe? I can't wait to get mine resolved...probably the most annoying issue I have ever had to live with...besides the tapping lifters......and a chihuahua mix dog that keeps pissing on the trash can in the kitchen when no one is looking.

nice to know....so basically rotella 15/40 is ok to run in our engines?

250,000 + miles on mine when I changed mine and rockers were fine...some lifters were actually broken in places. Beats me why. Check and replace all vacuum/coolant lines that run UNDER the plenum while you have it off the engine. Can't get to them otherwise. I replaced my IAC valve while it was off also. I test fitted each lifter in the lifter block and where some felt slightly snug, they fit fine in other openings and eventually got all of them to fit without any movement resistance. Good luck getting these hydraulic lifters to ever been completely silent. Mine started making some noise again after a few thousand miles and I'm just going to leave them be and attribute it to putting brand new parts in a very old worn engine....since I'm not about to spend hundreds more on new lifters again and new lifter blocks and new rocker arm assemblies. I run Valvoline 20/50 racing oil as its about all I can find in the stores that actually still has some ZDDP in it....and I doubt there is much in it since the US GOVT made everyone stop using it in their products for reasons I'm not going to go into here because once I find out it's related to the US govt...it just pisses me off to no end. You can research it on the internet though. Engine still runs like a champ and doesn't consume oil...and gas mileage is still up around 20 mpg Currently trying to fix the dreaded random high idle issue.....related to MAF connection/harness.

ahhh learn something new everyday. This is why I asked first before ripping things apart lol. Gotta admit though...it looks odd but then again, we're talking technology from 1990. after reconnecting the harness to the sensor and driving it around this morning it didn't act up at all....but I am sure it will eventually, but still makes me believe more and more that this is where the wacky idle problem is coming from. The connector doesn't even really attach very tightly to the sensor anymore...kind of a loose fitting.

well it's not in there now! lol and "oops" if its suppose be.

...aren't ground wires usually 'braided' wires?

Im going to gently cut into the harness/sheath to see how the insides look and maybe figure out why this one braided wire was yanked out and none of the others. the connector and sheath around the wires looks all original/factory to me. I will get a better photo posted later when I have time....I thought my digital camera was on macro...

yeah its just doesnt seem 'stock' to me.....just another one of the 'weird' things I have discovered over the years that previous owner(s) have done. When I did my knock sensor job...I found a bottle cleaner brush (wire brush about the size of a test tube bottle...hence the name...) shoved inside one of the valve cover oil breather lines/pipes. I was wondering...wtf is this doing in there? with the handle broken off too. Duh. I guess someone was attempting to 'clean out the lines', broke the handle off it...and just left it in there. -Chris

Update: I was looking at my MAF sensor connection and noticed that the area just before the connector on the wires had been electrical taped all up like crazy and far as I know it must have been like that since I have owned the truck. So being curious, I peeled off the electrical tape and found this braided wire sticking out and going nowhere...as if it was pulled out from the connector and rest of the wires, and then taped over with electrical tape. Does this sound weird to you folks?? Any ideas/suggestions? I will try to post a pic here also of it. thanks, Chris

Thanks for the info! I will get in touch with them about the part on pay day. But yeah, sometimes it will go a few days and idle fine...and somedays, like a couple days ago....man, it was just non-stop wanting to idle-up crazy on it's on every time I came to a stop light. Of course, after a few moments it would settle down to normal if you waited long enough. I'd like to shoot the Escort...man it is one ugly car...and smurf color faded-blue.

Thanks for all the suggestions....I will probably NOT shoot it since with my luck, the shot guy bb's would ricochet off the plenum and hit my neighbors cats or something...... O2 sensor was replaced also....and I did the unplugging and plugging back in while running and it made no difference so I ruled that out. (also made sure I routed the wires away from exhaust pipes!) ECU codes flash all normal (gotta love the old school red and green flashing lights....) When I disconnect the MAF sensor with the engine running...it dies immediately. Replaced ignition coil also with no improvement. done seafoam and pcv and replaced the brake booster vacuum line when I did the Knock sensor replacement project a while back. I've sealed the dry rot cracks I found in the air intake tube with silicone also. But yeah when it is NOT acting up idle-wise, it runs great and idles as well as a truck with 257,000 miles would be expected to. (has a sputter ever now and then...no big deal...it is old....) sometimes when driving along at a slow speed I can feel the truck surge forward and if I take it out of gear...there goes the crazy idle again...(it started going wacky while driving along..) I've tried adjusting the idle speed slightly and it will still go nuts like before. And yes...rolling through the parking lot at wal mart can be annoying at times as that seems to be when it wants to go screwy just when I am waiting for people to cross in front of me at the crosswalk...vvrrrrrRRRRRROOOOOOMMMMMM "Its not me people...my engine is possessed!" lol. I have seen where some have problems with the MAF wiring or connector....where might I find one of these repair kits or replacement things? How can I check mine...just grab it and wiggle it around to see if it causes any hiccups? that connector does seem to sit right against the underside of the hood from what I remember... I have never thought about the power steering pressure sensor but it is connected and I did replace the high pressure line about 2 years ago after it developed a pinhole leak...I will check to make sure it is still connected and such. This will give me something to do this coming weekend along with replacing the serpentine belt tensioner on my stepsons girlfriends ugly blue 99 ford escort thanks for the suggestions! -Chris

Ugh...so flippin sick and tired of dealing with erratic high and stumbling idle issues that my '90 SE does whenever it feels like it. Replaced everything over the last year or so and still wants to jump up to between 1000 and 2000 rpms when idling and its a rough stumbling idle....eventually (and sometimes not....) dropping back down to normal range and very smooth. Then it can start going wacko anytime it's taken out of gear or sitting at a stop light even with clutch in and in gear. TPS replaced, IAC replaced, all new vacuum lines, new spark plugs, new lifters and intake manifold/plenum gaskets, new fuel injector o-rings, etc etc. Cleaned the MAF (gently) and K&N cone air filter is pristine. Maybe it's a vacuum leak but damned if I can find it. For the most part it runs great when under load.....but cripes this idle crap is making want to either just shoot it with one of my .12 gauges or just sell it off for whatever I can get for it and move on to another vehicle. I've had people/mechanics tell me it's a bad neutral switch , and I've had people/mechanics tell me it doesn't have one because it's a manual tranny.... love my truck but dang lol.

well mine does NOT leak AT ALL! probably because my AC hasn't worked in years

my little green colored rubber stoppers arrived today. All is good again AND thanks to this little brake light issue, the cruise control is back in good working order. Oh the benefits of belonging to a good group like this! thanks, Chris

yes it's a 5 speed, and there are two switches on the clutch pedal...one on the floor (interlock), one up by where the brake light switches would be (the rubber stop/bumper on that one is square shaped), and there is a space/mount where another switch would be, next to that one, but there is none, so it looks like in some cases, there would be a total of three switches for the clutch pedal. I'm figuring that the switch it does have under the dash, which rests on the square rubber stop on the pedal, is the other cruise control switch.