Well it's not really as bad as all that. The car is 1983 240 Turbo automatic.
I did some work over the weekend trying to diagnse and repair a few persistent problems. I have been having trouble with my cruise control not working so, following the troubleshooting guide I received from Grtdane, I checked all the electrical components (all checked out) and reconnected the wires to the governor. I checked the Throttle Actuator hoses (one thin and one fat with a cable running to the throttle body) and found the thin one did produce vacuum (as required) but the fat one wasn't airtight (a-HA!). I wondered where it goes and how to replace it?
Then I set to work on figuring out why my car won't idle until it's warm and why it stalls if I'm really gentle on the gas (that is, if I'm coasting slowly and I give it just enough gas to raise the tach a few RPM and then release it the car stalls). The last time this happened I had loose air-hose clamps and tightening them and cleaning the air filter did the trick. Not this time.
Then, looking at my Haynes Manual I saw that the Throttle Sensor (which is a small flat box with a copper tab sticking out and resting against the throttle). According to Haynes when the throttle opens there should be an audible 'click' as the copper switch also opens. This has never been the case so I bent the copper tab until it clicked on and off as the throttle left the "zero position".
Then I went for a drive. I live downtown in a crowded city.
Several times when accellerating sharply the pedal would take off! The car would accellerate wildly and the pedal would pull away from my foot. Braking had no effect on the throttle and yielded the expected "one foot on gas one foot on brake" results. Only kicking down HARD on the gas pedal would free it from this spell. One time I had to kill the ignition because it started racing right before a stop sign. I was able to reproduce the problem whenever I stepped hard on the accellerator.
Disconnecting the cruise governor did not solve this problem.
I bent the copper tab on the Throttle Sensor back so that there would be no more clicking but, although the problem is gone, I just don't think that was it. What was happening was definitely vacuum at work on the gas pedal so I'm suspecting the Throttle Actuator is a factor but don't understand how a leak can cause MORE vacuum. Should I disconnect the throttle actuator? Could it be the Sensor? I suspect vacuum is at the root of all my problems (cruise/idling/racing)... any ideas on what to check next?
Thanks in advance. blurp
ps. sorry this mesage is so long, I wanted to get all the details in.