feedback carb throttle position sensor

[Clone TIE Pilot]

Mine does not seem to have a dead spot. Carb cleaner will damage the TPS. Other thing is maybe you have break in the wiring harness or a failing ground giving you issues. Is the sensor getting good reference voltage from the ECM? Even good sensors won't operate right without proper grounding and reference voltage.

 

[jiho]

You miss the point. This brand-new ACDelco has the same dead spot, on the bench, as the Wells that's been on the car for about 18k miles. You have to sweep very slowly to catch either one, but both have the same dead spot around 3.8 kOhms (see first post). Otherwise I would have just installed the ACDelco and been done with it, and never would have started this thread. (Maybe I don't explain myself so good, lol.)

As for the stumble, I just solved that today, and it's a real laugher. It was the air filter, which only had about 15k miles on it, but apparently was filling with dust, because the smoke from the Carr Fire did it in fast. Replaced with a Wix, and the car runs better than it did before the fire.

 

[85442/86buick]

Car Fire ?

 

[jiho]

Carr Fire. Redding, CA. The one that started July 23, and had the "firenado" a thousand feet in diameter and 40,000 feet tall that jumped the river and took out some neighborhoods. I'm about 5 or 6 miles from that location. The "firenado" knocked our power out for nearly 24 hours, and I was literally in the dark through the worst part of the crisis, with little idea what was happening. I was ready to evacuate (in my Malibu, of course), but never had to.

 

[fleming442]

Could the mixture control solenoids br lazy?

 

[Clone TIE Pilot]

Very likely both the Wells and AC Delco sensors come from the same factory in China which likely may have quality control issues as these cars are so old, nobody wants to bother with making quality parts, or any parts at all in some cases.

 

[jiho]

Yeah, I figure it's either a "manufacturing technique" or a "design feature" of the original. Anyway I'm not exactly rushing out to buy more just to test them. From what I can tell, the computer is blind to it. Granted it's only one drive with a new air filter, but I didn't notice anything but smooth response yesterday with the same old Wells TPS, 18k miles on it, dead spot and all.

 

[jiho]

Could the mixture control solenoids br lazy?

Gaak! A little slow on the uptake myself. When I read this (over a month ago) I thought what, it's a solenoid, it either works or it doesn't. This morning I woke up tossing and turning, suddenly dawning on me how it would get "lazy". But how do you test to know if it is?