Can the IAC valve pintle be taken out and clean and lubricated and then reinstalled? My IAC has been sticking from time to time and I picked up a new one from Autozone and its a Wells and I'd just assume not run one then run a Wells part so I'm going to try and clean mine first. It had been working perfect and then it stuck and then tonight it started working fine again. I know you guys will say to replace it but I'd like to clean it first if its possible.

 

Was wanting to do this tomorrow morning...

 

If it was me I'd either take the wells part back to the zone and get a better brand somewhere else or buy some carb or TBI cleaner and use a toothbrush to clean it up as best you can.

 

The pintle should be run out and then back in via a stepper driver. The stock ECM can do this by shorting A & B on the ALDL connector and key-on, engine-off. Then to run it back in swap two of the same color wires on the IAC connector. Same A & B short. . . Don't forget to swap the wires back. And note that the pintle will shoot out during the extend.

The reason for this is that the pintle is keyed to the housing so that it doesn't rotate. Sometimes the pintle can be wiggled out and then back, but the IAC can also be damaged doing this. Never rotate the pintle to disassemble an IAC. Some aftermarket units are an exception to this. They use the spring to prevent the pintle from rotating.

RBob.

 

Well believe it or not since I bought the Wells (is Wells the same as Wells Fargo, as in the Wells Fargo Wagon?) my IAC motor has worked flawlessly. Aside from needing minimum air set because I had the throttle pretty well shut completely off so it would halfway keep a reasonable rpm to idle when the IAC was stuck, its working fine. I'm going to try cleaning it with carb cleaner and see what comes out. I don't exactly understand why it would get hung up like that but it did. We'll see. I know a flaky GM IAC is better then a "new" Wells IAC. I had a wells ignition module in my junk yard distributor and it made the tach jump to 5k everytime I started it. Needless to say I threw the Wells module away.

 

Took the IAC off and looked close and found there was a lot of black gunk I had missed when I prepped the throttle body before I had installed it. Cleaned the IAC up really well with carb cleaner and a ton of nasty black crap came out, sprayed a little penetrating oil in it for good measure and stuck it back in. Seems to be working smooth as silk now. The best part about this whole deal is I used a hundred dollar bill to buy the IAC at autozone since nobody can seem to break a hundred, and now when I take the Wells IAC back I'll have broken my hundred and it didn't take me having to buy something to do it. Thanks autozone.