Cold start problem

I posted a while back on a stalling issue I was having and was told to replace my CTS and O2 sensor. It did not make a difference on the problem. I may have described the problem poorly though. Basically it starts fine then about 10-20 seconds into it's idle it jumps up the RPMs then they go to 0 and the motor stops spinning for like 1/8 second and then it either dies completely or starts going again with the high idle. It will continue doing this for about 30 minutes and if I try to put the car in gear most of the time it will stall. Once the car gets going (if I don't leave it warm up a long time) it will do fine as long as I have my foot on the gas but the car randomly bucks. If I let off the gas to stop then it will stall almost every time, but not always. On warmer days (like 75+ degrees) the car does not usually act up at all on idle and never bucks or stalls when I am driving it). I replaced the fuel filter, plugs and wires, O2 sensor, CTS and the air filters with no luck. Car is an 85 305 TPI. Thanks.

I'm chasing a similar problem on my 85, and pretty much narrowed it down to a a bald spot in the TPS. And coincidently, with the TPS disconnected it will run all day along, not driveable but it will run.

Thanks for the suggestion. Never tried unhooking the TPS, but with a multimeter it seems to move up pretty steady in voltage, although according to my Chilton's it is reading too low voltage even with it tippped back all the way? Also, I am not sure but is the TPS even used to measure anything in open loop? This problem is seriously driving me nuts because I know aside from it my car runs excellent. I was actually thinking that it could be the MAF but I don't really have the money to keep throwing parts at the car, and especially not ones that cost $300+. Just out of curiosity does anyone know what the connector on the passenger side of the motor with a green wire and a black wire in it (with some seperation) usually goes to? I only ask because the previous owner put a new motor in the car and he just stuck a resistor or diode or something in it? Seems like it sould not be like that. Thanks for all the help.

Hey, I was thinking, is there any chance this issue could have anything to do with the AIR system on my car? Seems like it might be a likely culprit to me. Any thoughts? Thanks

what makes you say that? noisy or seems over active?

that should throw a code tho and really shouldn't have much to do with idle function. All it does is route the gases. Not sure how that would play out, I would definatley think it would throw a code, I'll look into that.

http://racingarticles.com/article_racing-62.html Section 4 about the oxygen sensors. Considering the air pump is started with the car it seems like it could possibly have something to do with my problem maybe. All I know is it is a really annoying problem whatever it happens to be. If your car is doing the same thing then you know what I mean.

ha ha, I found the same thing myself :)

the alteration in the O2 reading still shouldn't be all the infuent on it tho....

where exactly is the wire you eluding to earlier?

I dunno exactly where it is supposed to go but right now it is on the passenger side of the motor right behind and to the side of the intake runners it is actually 2 wires on a connector that are spaced apart a bit. One is green and one is black. I think the guy I bought it from put the resistor or diode or whatever it is in it. I didn't ever remove it because I don't know what it does, otherwise I could tell you if it was a resistor or diode. Isn't it funny how we are the only two people posting on this issue? Right now I won't rule anything out as the cause of this problem. The thing that makes it the most odd is that it seems totally random as to when it starts acting up and some days are worse than others. Kind of strange that we both found the same article...? heh. Another thing I found was an article (don't remember where) but it said that the wrong type of oil can cause idle problems and stalling in cold temps because it makes the valves stick.. The only thing about that though is it was saying the problem was with the higher viscosity oil and I use 5W-30. Oh well... I am still not going to rule out the MAF or the AIR system though.

well, as said, I'm pretty sure mine is Tps issue, it's @ all times, but it's too cold right now to be randomly checking.