1985 Civic 1500S startup/idle problems

[cubeATTACK]

Yo, this is my first post, I was hoping someone here could help me with my new car. It's a 1985 Civic 1500 S, it's in pretty bad shape but it only cost me $150 so it was a good buy to fix up. Anyways, here is my problem:

the car starts up pretty well, and idles at about 2,500 rpms. I know older cars need to warm up, but after a couple minutes it starts to go down, pauses at 1500rpms, and then the engine dies. Starting it back up is difficult, but if you give it gas for a couple seconds and then kick it into gear it runs fine. I was just wondering what would cause it to go under 1500 rpms and die when it should idle there, and why it starts up fine afterwards with no warming. I'm looking forward to any advice!

[lxndr]

Sounds like it just needs to have the carb adjusted or possibly rebuilt.

[cvcc_wagon]

sounds like it might be an air leak. spray carb cleaner around the carb when it is running at 2500, if the idle dies down for a moment when you hit the leak that's your problem.

[lxndr]

Usually a vacuum leak will cause the motor to rev high constantly without dying. I suspect that the low idle is not adjusted properly. It sounds like it is set loo low and when it kicks down from high idle, it just dies.