Throttle Body Setup Adjustment

Throttle Body Setup Adjustment

 

Republished from http://www.paladinmicro.com

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Aftermarket throttle bodies allegedly have the throttle valve (butterfly) properly set when they leave the factory, however I have seen a number of posts on the forums from people who had idle problems after installing an aftermarket TB and either did not know what to do, or decided to muck about with the throttle valve stop screw (aka "idle screw", which it really isn't).

The PCM can tolerate and correct for a lot of things that are not entirely perfect, however a lot of what it does is based upon an assumption of certain base settings. The base throttle body idle stop screw setting is one of those things. Some have been lucky and solved their problems, other have gotten things so messed up that they sent the new TB back and reinstalled the stock unit.

Here is the procedure for resetting the throttle valve back to it's proper initial position.

  1. Loosen the adjustment screw locknut, and turn the throttle stop screw anti-clockwise (loosen it) until you can see the gap between it and the throttle linkage lever;
  2. Using a feeler gauge adjust the screw until there is 0.010" clearance between the screw and the throttle lever;
  3. Turn the screw clockwise (tighten it) one full turn;
  4. Start the engine to check idle speed, if too high turn the crew anti-clockwise in small increments (1/16 turn) until the idle speed is as you like; if too low then turn the screw clockwise in small increments;
  5. Hold the stop-screw screw in position and tighten the locknut;

If there is any binding of the throttle plate at tip-in then loosen the locknut and turn the adjusting screw clockwise very slightly (no more than 1/8th turn) to eliminate the binding--retighten the lock nut of course.

It's not a bad idea at this point to disconnect the battery for 5-7 minutes to clear the PCM's KAM (Keep Alive Memory). This is where all learned parameters, such as idle air and fuel trim values are stored. Clearing the KAM will force the PCM to relearn these values.

If the idle is still not as you would like (it should be, but there's a slim possibility it may not be) repeat step 4.


Here's a photo of the throttle stop screw:

image1
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