Does this make sense?

Car is off, disconnect throttle position sensor(for whatever reason... replace plug, get at a hose, etc, etc)
Plug TPS back in, turn car on. Car runs like crap for about 2-5 minutes then runs perfectly.

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Car is off, disconnect battery, then disconnect TPS.
Plug TPS back in, reconnect battery, car runs perfectly.

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Does it make sense that with the car off, if I unplug the TPS without disconnecting the battery that it should run like crap for a few minutes? I'm not sure how things work, but it would seem like the car knows the TPS is disconnected when the car is off. By off, I mean no key in, no nothing. That makes no sense whatsoever. Now, I suppose it would make sense if there was something wrong with the connection itself that manages to work itself out within a few minutes, but then why would it NOT run like crap just because I disconnected the battery?

This seems to happen exactly as listed for each scenario, never changing. The first time I ever dc'd the TPS was when I replaced my injectors and I thought I had screwed something up after I started it up, but, 5 minutes later it ran perfectly. Since then I've disconnected the TPS a few times as listed in the above scenarios, and if the battery is not disconnected BEFORE I unplug the TPS, it will run like crap for a few minutes. This is happening before and after I replaced the damaged connector, so being brand new, that's not the problem.

As a bit more info, it NEVER runs like crap in any other scenario, normally, daily driving, rainy, hot, cold, whatever. Just when I dc the TPS before dc'ing the battery.

I'm installing a new throttle body, tps, iac, coolant plate, gaskets, bolts, etc this weekend, but that oddity with the original TPS is bugging me.

 

Interesting. What ecm do you have?

 

Stock, whatever came with a 91 TA I guess. I just replaced the throttle body, iac, tps, iac housing gaskets and bolts to try and get rid of an occasional stumble issue while driving. Seems to have worked. This time I unplugged the battery first, then did my work, connecting the battery last. Started up with no issues. I've taken to not unplugging the tps with the battery connected anymore as I just don't like the car running like crap for those few minutes. Not like I have any great need to unplug it all the time, but I did recently replace the injectors, then a few of the connectors and now the entire throttle body setup. The metal lever outside the tps was quite rusty and the iac was coated in a thickish dusty crap. iac housing has some issues, broken bolt and some gouge marks where the water and junk had collected due to poor clamping causing it to gouge/corrode the aluminum at one of the fittings.

I'm hoping that any issues were taken care of with the new iac and tps, but I don't plan on testing if unplugging the tps without dcing the battery causes it to run like crap. Weird stuff I say.

 

Thanks for the info. Sounds like you got it figured out. I'll bet you were scratching your head for a while. It is good to here these things... to help with trouble shooting.

Thanks