the 88 fox wagon will start and idles badly but as soon as I step on the gas it dies. any ideas?

Sounds like you need a new fuel accumulator - you may just be having trouble holding fuel pressure when the car is cold - if you turn on the car - press on the gas - the throttle will go down - then when it does - hit the gas again - when you take you pedal off it should go back up - keep doing this (if you stall just keep turning it on and doing this it'll eventually get back to idle - unless it doesn't hold idle after about 5 minutes or so - then you may need a new auxillary air valve - if your car idles really low when its cold out but then goes back to normal as the engine warms up then this may be a symptom of needing to replace this part) but just hit the gas - the throttle will go down but when you take it off it'll go back up - what happens is your accumulator usually holds fuel vapor pressure to your car - and then injects it through the distributor to the cold start valve until the thermo time switch gets a reading from the coolant temp on the thermostat that the engine is normal temp - where it will cut off the cold start valve to allow the regular injectors to take over - but if you have any of these symptoms then the parts mentioned need to be replaced - may as well replace your fuel pump check valve (ball bearing may be also leaking fuel vapor pressure) if you have a whiny noise but can't figure out where it's coming from - that's also a sign of a shot accumulator for its job is also to keep the fuel pump noise quiet - a bad spring in the accumulator will cause this - if you don't have cold start problems and you have a CIS - they'll likely happen in the future - I've had this happen to me on both my Foxes -

Sounds like you need to find someone who can check your fuel pressure. Unfortunately, since you've got a CIS fuel system it takes a special guage set. It's worth the trouble to save alot of expensive parts guessing.

It definitely sounds like fuel pressure....

CIS i presume not CIS-E i had same problem.
mine is mechanical inj (CIS). heres what i did;
start with the simple stuff and work your way up!

did any contaminents get in gas tank? fuel filters are a little more expensive than others but a good place to start.
b4 you replace the filter check the filters fittings!

fuel fittings on my filter were not quite mated when i put it together (one to many spacers?) started, idled nicley but the minute i touched the gas it died, right now! i dissassembled removed a spacer car now runs no problem ( except for ...well see my thread in this section... lacks hard acceleration power) none the less car is able to get to point a to b no problem!
if not connections, replace filter and watch those fittings!

Airflow sensor;
run motor for a few minutes to build up fuel presure this, would as it would seem, allow the fuel distributor to acctuate air flow sensor,
check the airflow plate it must be centered or risk getting caught up! .85 and later models tolerance is 0.075in or 1.9mm up to 0.083 or 2.1mmthis gap is all around. between it and the venturi. also there should be an eveness with bottom of air cone with fuel line risidual pressure removed. i would leave this alone for it is probably not a cause.there is a clip below the plate to adjust this though, taking care not to scratch bore!
more importantly the action of this unit must be tested!
once plate is central and fuel system recharged with fuel check the action of sensor!using magnet or such device lift plate to the top of its movement. there must be a slight but even resistance, no hard spots! depress plate quickly, this time there should be no resistance to movement.hard spots in both directions? check the plat for being center again.bottom of airflow unit has a bearing that holds the "boom" so it can acctuateproperly. clearance on either side of the sensor beam should be even!

uneven or hard spots when lifting?
this sugests the plunger in the fuel mixture unit (fuel distributor?) remove this item and take apart, ( it is the unit where feul is distributed to motor via 4 gas lines and one in center looks kinda like the distrubutor)clean plunger, located in the center, and allows sensor beam to move which in turn moves airflow plate, clean it with with carb cleaner ... no abrasives!reassemble and try again. this airflow unit can cause similar problems to what u describe. your problem lies in the fuel delivery,so you need to consider the pump, the pressure diaphram regulator, filters,idle stablizer valve, ect etc... i am just goin by what i did, and my car is beyond the stalling stage! hope this helps dont give up!:ylsuper: