Pinto Car Club of America

Please help me I am ready to rip this carbureted engine out and shove in an EFI engine. I cant make this car idle. It appears that the choke is shut all the way at idle, all the time. Even when warm. It does open on throttle tho IIRC. If i open the choke butterfly by hand it will idle. I think there is an adjustment somehow but ive tried all the ones i can find and it doesnt help. I also think that the  choke butterfly should not be TOTALLY closed ever, i thought it was supposed to have a SMALL gap, like 1/16" or 1/8" between choke plate and carb throat for air, even when it was "all the way closed". Not the case on this car. Also, When i changed engines in  this car a year and a half ago i labeled all my vac lines but apparently not good enough because i couldnt figure out how they went. Anyways, nothing is hooked up except the trans modulator directly to the intake and the distributor directly to the base of the carb, above the throttle plate so it gets vacuum on acceleration. Nothing else is  hooked up. The choke has a tube on it for a vacuum line, and of course the EGR does too. There are some ports on a coolant temp sensor in the intake also. Main thing is getting that choke thing hooked up, i think it probably needs it. But id like to get the EGR working again too, i think it is needed to keep the car from running too rich. Any help appreciated! Thanks

Maybe try and adjust the choke spring back some.  As for the vaccuum lines, I started a post about a year or so ago with a bunch of pics showing how the vaccuum lines are routed on my dads all original 79 wagon.  Do a search, it should help you.

Thanks Tigger! That did the trick. I skipped the charcoal canister, but i might go ahead and hook it up too. Thanks again!

Your welcome, I am glad it helped you.