Whoops!

I unplugged the two connections on the airbox and switched them around. I thought for some reason that I had them mexed up from the last time the airbox was off. After I switched them, I tried to start the car. It didn't start. I didn't hold it long. I then switched them back, and the car still won't start. Did I flood the car when I did this? Should I just let it sit for a while?
Thanks
Tim

Well I let her sit during dinner. i went out to start it again, and it finally started. It was definitely flooded. I could smell the gas. It doesn't seem like it is idling correctly though.
Tim

[Tomguy]

Tim: You mean these wires on the air filter? (The air temp sensor)

It's only a thermistor, a thermally-sensitive resistor. Not a diode or an IC of any type, the wire positions don't matter (there is no "backwards"). Although mine (like my MAP) has a D-shaped plug and socket that don't allow a "backwards" connection, it makes no difference. Resistance is the same value no matter which wire is where.

It CAN be possible, however, that it's not a good conection or the wires are off - that would cause over-rich running!

I do not have the "D" shaped plug there. I have two little seperate plugs. I had the two of them switched around. One is green, and one is blue.
Tim

[psfred]

Doesn't matter so long as the actually make contact and are not shorted. The plug fell apart, you probably have some wires spliced on to the factory originals.

If the contact is bad (or the sensor is), it will run WAY rich - black smoke out the back and terrible milage.

Peter

My wires don't look spliced, but you never know. This wouldn't even run at all.
Tim

The other day I was going to my grandpa's with my dad, and the car was idling VERY low. It was to the point where it was drawing off of the battery. I had to shift into neutral at all stop and constantly rev it up. The oil pessure was going down to about 5. Once we arrived at our destination, I shifted into park, and it stalled instantly. I tried starting it, and the only way I could start it was to hit the gas hard while it was turning over. Then we took off the air box and noticed that the flap on the intake was totally closed. It was not getting any air. We then manually opened the flap and kept the engine running for a bit. After that we put the airbox back on and plugged in the two wires on it. I tried to start it one more time. It was flooded, but after a little work I got it started. Then it just ran fine. I don' know what the problem was. I thought maybe one of those wires was loose or something, but you said they don't mean that much, correct?
Thanks
Tim

[psfred]

Tim:

The computer adjusts the mixture based on the temp "reported" by that sensor. If it's open, it signals some extremely low temperature, and since that's a dumb computer (no memory, no "lookup table", and no default values), it dumps the gas to it.

If the idle is goofy, you have something clogging up the idle control valve (very large straight slot screw up by the distributor), the throttle valve should be closed at idle. Take the hoses off and see if it's full of slops from short running in cold weather if the idle drops off again.

Don't set the idle with the throttle stop, use the idle screw up front. Also, if the fast idle sticks, it's the aux air valve to the right of the idle screw, again not the throttle.

You also need to check the throttle switch if it fails to idle again -- there is a switch on it that closes when the throttle is closed to tell the ECU to use the idle mixture and not the running mixture. Idle mixture is set with the wheel on the ECU, usually a little richer than the running mixture. If it's set a bit lean running, and the idle mix isn't activated because the switch is bad or misadjusted, the engine may run rough and or stall.

Peter