off-idle acceleration - fixed?

[treed2@u.washington.edu (T. Reed)]

I pulled the fuel distributor out of the airbox and poked the plunger with
my finger - it was really stiff to move in and it took about a second to
move back out after being pushed in all the way. That would explain why
it was hard to accelerate from idle.. and why I couldn't lift the air flow
plate without a strong grip with a pair of pliers.

After searching in vain for a way to remove the plunger without needing to
make adjustments later on, I undid the outer 'nut' and pulled the plunger
and stop screw free. The distributor dripped fuel all over my hands so I
used it to give the parts a little bath and then I put the plunger back in
and jabbed it in and out and it was real easy to move and popped right out
when I let go. So I carefully measured the .026" adjustment for the stop
screw and put it all back together. Only after putting the last screw back
in did I realize that I'd left out the .5mm thick washer that goes under
the outer nut.

Well I started her up anyway and the difference was dramatic - suddenly I
had throttle response.. and although it was still difficult to get off
idle, the car would actually accelerate when cold!

As best as I can determine, my failure to put the washer in caused the
stop for the plunger to shift upwards relative to the body of the fuel
distributor. That might explain why its still hard (or at least.. slow) to
accelerate from idle - the mixture isn't changing at all from idle to
..say.. 1200 rpm because the air plate lever arm isn't contacting the
plunger yet since its higher up. I'll take it all apart tomorrow and
re-assemble with the washer in place (I didn't do it today because it was
raining and getting dark).

The thing that still worries me though, is that after unbolting the fuel
dist from the airbox and poking the plunger with my finger.. it leaked
fuel on my finger - it didn't 'drip', but it leaked enough to cause
concern. If it were to drip on to my air filter and saturate it I could
have an engine fire. I might be in the market for a new (used) fuel
distributor just from fear of that alone.

The plunger appeared to be in good shape, but the lower bit that goes in
and out of the stop screw sleeve was rusted in a few tiny spots. The
sleeve was also pretty rusted. That doesn't seem like a good thing to me -
but is it something to get concerned about ? I didn't try to scrape off
any of the rust or anything for fear of worsening the fuel leak.

Thanks to everyone who tried to help and man am I relieved to have finally
found the problem that was making it seem like my gas pedal wasn't
connected!

-Toby

--
'87 16v