It was n't ouching anything and seemed to have no purpose. I noticed the bracket it is on was bent so I straightened it out and it touches the "thumb place" on my throttle linkage so I determined it must belong there. I noticed it got stiff when the car was running and increased my idle. Is this some sort of idle control thing? The dizzy wires are in the same bundle as the red wire that this THING is plugged into. When I unplugged it the car stuttered momentarily but kept running fine. It is probably some sort of first day automotive class thing I should already know right?
That is your "curb idle solenoid". It is used to hold the idle high enough that the car won't stall at stops but disengages when the key is off so the engine doesn't run on (diesel) when you shut it off. I tune the engine to the lowest idle in neutral and then set the curb idle in Drive as low as I can without suffering from stalls. It works better for me than having the engine idle at 700 in gear.
So I bent the bracket holding it in place and set it so when the car is idling in drive it's around 700rpms(with the solenoid at "full mast") It was bent all the way out of the way.
You should be OK to remove it but it does work well for stopping run on in the hot weather when its set up right. IF it was my car I would use it and have used them in the past.
Ive never messed with it but it sounds like you can set the idle lower? cool, i need to put mine back on, i want to hit 400 like scooper.
ive had two '73 302 cars that were non-a/c that had those (one of them being my 4dr, the other was a '73 Grabber 302/3sp manual)
Eventually I'll get one when I feel confident enough to install it and all the stuff that it entails. First the electronic ignition, then the 4 bbl, then the headers... So ditch this lil guy or keep it? If I don't need it then why keep it?
