I noticed about two years ago that my idle kick stopped working. I narrowed it down to the vacuum solenoid was sticking. AMCfool1 sent me some emissions bits a few years back and this let me swap in another solenoid, but the second solenoid failed a year later. Again, it was sticking shut. You rev the engine and it would open but if you are trying to start the engine hot in the middle of summer have fun because it really needs that throttle to be slightly cracked open.
Well now I'm just using his solenoid manifold and I'm running down the line as one fails so I'm not fighting the tabs and rebuilding the valves and another year later and again, the solenoid is AGAIN stuck.
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You can take these apart and inspect/clean them. Bend the four tabs straight, pull the U-shaped bracket off and the solenoid comes out the slot, then you can pull the O-ring sealed rear port off and remove the spring and needle valve.
All three of them were clean inside with no signs they are gummed up. Electrically they also seem fine. Resistance is about 75 ohms and the protection diode is good. Energized coil draws 150-170ma which is correct.
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Who makes these? Are these Chrysler or GM? I'd like to keep the correct solenoids for '82 installed but AMC start using what I think are Ford-style solenoids starting in 1983 which had new non-serviceable solenoids and molded connectors with internal protection diodes but the plumbing is slightly different. Once this last solenoid fails I'm going to have to have to switch to these.
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