I got Douge Roe's book and a Borg Warner rebuild kit. I took the carb off and... put the whole thing in the parts washer
.

There were three plugs on the carb for something electrical. One was blue and sat on the top in front. One was white and on the front face to the right of the fuel filter. The last one is black and on the passenger side face.

What do they do, and how to I test them without putting the whole thing back together to tell whether I screwed the up?

Thanks,
Jason

 

Top blue plug- goes to the mixture control solenoid. Critical piece. It won't hurt the solenoid itself (it's sealed and made of metal) but the wires and connector could have gotten "melted". Hard to bench test. Put the assembled carb back on the car, reattach the connector to it, turn the key to "run" and it should make a very noticably clicking noise. If it clicks, it's OK. If it doesn't it's roached. $60 retail.

The white connector is the TPS (Throttle Position Sensor). Without a scan tool there's no way of knowing whether it's giving proper readings back to the ECM. In general, you might as well spend $20 and replace it on general principle. They often go bad long before you notice a problem. I doubt there are many stock-original TPS sensors that are still functioning correctly after 15+ years, even if they haven't been dunked in carb cleaner.

The black thing on the side is the choke element. You can melt the snot out of the black plastic that holds the element and the element will likely still work. An on-car test is to make sure the choke opens up FULLY within about 5 minutes of running from an overnight-cold start (obviously, make sure it's plugged in and that the wire feeding it supplies a full 12V anytime the key is in the "run" position- it uses the voltage to heat the choke and cause it to open). If it does, it's fine. If it doesn't it's roached. $40 retail.

In general, diassemble the carb BEFORE putting it in carb cleaner (there's nowhere for the crud to go if the carb's sealed up, even when the carb cleaner melts it off). Anything that's not made of metal does NOT go in carb cleaner.

 

Thanks for replying.

I learned that putting it into the washer still together didn't do much.

I have it dissaembled now and I will try putting it back together tonight and tomorrow.

Anybody know where I can score an idle solenoid other than the dealership? As I understand it I need it to run the A/C, and I would like that this summer.

 

You can usually get those at NAPA, Advance, or any auto parts store. I got mine at NAPA.

 

A junkyard. But - you don't need it. I took mine off long ago because the solenoid was sticking causing a high idle. Haven't had any problems without it. The RPM's drop barely 50RPM at idle when the compressor kicks on.