I went out today armed with all the good advise everyone had given me and started checking things out. I looked down the throttle at the plate and it appeared to be ok. I then disconnected the ball joints on the throttle linkage and the throttle plate arm dropped another 1/2"! I then started the engine and it idled perfectly. Adjusted the linkages and now the engine runs great and idles smooth. As I mentioned in an eariler post I got the car with a non operational engine due to the Bosch fuel injection system having been trashed with water contamination. It appears somebody messed with the linkage in a vain attempt to get it running. Thanks Chuck for your thoughful advice, you led me right to it. Woody

Good work!

Not that I would have done it differently, but this is a classic case of assuming that the problem is in the most complicated part of the system. The moral of the story is check the basics, especially if you're dealing with a car that's been screwed with.

Don't forget to set the mixture using the duty cycle setting on your multimeter.

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Chuck Taylor
Falls Church VA
'66 200, '66 230SL, '96 SL500. Sold: '81 380SL, '86 300E, '72 250C, '95 C220, 3 '84 280SL's '90 420SEL, '72 280SE, '73 280C, '78 280SE, '70 280SL, '77 450SL, '85 380SL, '87 560SL, '85 380SL, '72 350SL, '96 S500 Coupe

This my second attempt to post back not sure where the other went to but anyway, I worked on the engine today armed with everyones advice. I first looked down the at the throttle plate and it appeared to be operating freely. I then took off the throttle linkage ball joints and found the throttle arm dropped a good 1/2" ! I started the engine up and it idled great. Made adjustments to the linkage now it starts up great and idles fine. As I had mentioned in eariler post I purchased this car with a non working engine that had its fuel injection system trashed with water contamination. I guess someone in a vain attempt to get it running messed with the linkage. Thanks Chuck you led me right to the problem. Woody

Chuck
I hate to keep coming back to the well so to speak but how do you set the mixture with a multimeter? Not sure what you are referring to as duty cycle on the meter. I do have a fluke 83 series meter.

Thanks for the suggestions on the idle relay, Chuck.

JF

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Justin Ford
'84 380SL
'05 Jeep Grand Cherokee