1) The idle on my Samurai started surging pretty badly. First it was idling real high because I tried to adjust the throttle cable, but I put it back and it stopped idling too high (3k RPM). However, now the lowest I can get it to idle (using the idle adjustment screw) without stalling is around 1750, and it surges about 250 RPM in each direction there (about one surge every 1-1.5 seconds). Any idea what could be causing it?

2) When the check engine light comes on, how do you find out what it is complaining about?

And, if there is an FAQ (other than Acks) or something you guys could point me to that would be great!

*edit*

I bought the car with a half-installed radio. There was kindof a tangled mess of wires underneath the radio, which did not work. This morning I pulled out the radio and the radio wiring harness, but I had to cut some of the wires which were actually connected to what Id guess is the body harness. I had to cut like 5 wires. Is there a chance that some of the wires I cut that went to the radio are causing trouble with the ECU? I read that the ECU controls the idle (btw, how does it do that?), so I could see that being the culprit if I happened to cut a splited ground or power wire.

1) The idle on my Samurai started surging pretty badly. First it was idling real high because I tried to adjust the throttle cable, but I put it back and it stopped idling too high (3k RPM). However, now the lowest I can get it to idle (using the idle adjustment screw) without stalling is around 1750, and it surges about 250 RPM in each direction there (about one surge every 1-1.5 seconds). Any idea what could be causing it?

2) When the check engine light comes on, how do you find out what it is complaining about?

And, if there is an FAQ (other than Acks) or something you guys could point me to that would be great!

*edit*

I bought the car with a half-installed radio. There was kindof a tangled mess of wires underneath the radio, which did not work. This morning I pulled out the radio and the radio wiring harness, but I had to cut some of the wires which were actually connected to what Id guess is the body harness. I had to cut like 5 wires. Is there a chance that some of the wires I cut that went to the radio are causing trouble with the ECU? I read that the ECU controls the idle (btw, how does it do that?), so I could see that being the culprit if I happened to cut a splited ground or power wire.

Do a search for idle adjustment. There are two idle adjustments on your stock carb. One cold and one for warm.

-Eric

Uh... yeah, I found the info in the first few links when doing a search. I hate to be like the prirate board, but information that can be found this easily shouldn't be re-cluttering the board.

And, if there is an FAQ (other than Acks) or something you guys could point me to that would be great!

Gee, I am now both heartbroken and curious... 

Gee, I am now both heartbroken and curious... 

LOL


There's a few FAQ's out there, but I'm pretty sure ACK's has all of them aggregated into his.

I was looking for suggestions on why the idle is surging, not how to adjust it. Obviously something bad happened to make it start acting the way it does, and to try to "adjust" it back down would be just putting a band-aid on it.

I spent several hours searching on this and other forums and found little to help. For the most part, the best I found was "check for vacuum leaks" other vague things like that. I was hoping for something like "a high, surging idle is often caused by a loose XXX, found at YYY location."

And Acks, your search page is great but I couldnt find anything specific to what I was looking for, except a few very old threads with no working images. I figured your page would be the first to come up when asking for FAQs, but since I had already been through it and not found anything specific to my problem I just decided to get that out of the way, heh.

Surging is usually caused by one or more of the following:
* clogged fuel filter
* bad fuel pup
* vacuume leaks (could be ANY vaccume line, get some soapy water, and start spraying & listening for RPM changes / fix)
* clogged carborator
* in desperate need of basic tuneup (plugs, wires, cap, rotor, PCV, valve adjustment...)
* bad EGR valve