I was talking to a fellow 7 owner when it was brought to my attention that there is a motor that's part of the carb that's job is to up the RPM when the A/C is on...

Because my RPM's drop when my A/C is on, I take it that motor is not doing its job...

For example, if I'm sitting in N with my E-brake on, and turn the A/C on, my idle will drop like mad, and the needle on the RPM meter will kind of pop up and down a little, because I think it's having a hard time staying at a consistent idle rate...

So, is the motor not running in my carb that's supposed to take care of this? Any suggestions on wtf I should do to alleviate the problem?

 

Look at your throttle linkage from the passenger side of the car. To the left of the linkage, you will see a vacuum dashpot. There is a vacuum line connected to the top, and an L shaped arm going underneath the throttle linkage. When the A/C is on, that little L shaped arm will lift and increase the throttle slightly to compensate for the compressor load.

Check to make sure the vacuum hose is still connected to the dashpot. If the problem persists- check that the vacuum solenoid is still functional (on the rats nest).

 

I'm glad this was brought up...I am having the same problem. I just thought my car was out of tune...I'll check in the morning.

 

I have that same problem and the fact it needs to be recharged....it was blowing ice last summer and now nothing.

 

There is also a screw on the top of the vacuum device that allows you to adjust how much you increase the idle speed with AC on. If you set it too high, the solenoid gets turned off. Then the idle drops, and the solenoid gets turned on, then the idle goes too high, then... In other words, the idle cycles between a low and high speed. It took me a bit to figure out the source of my surging idle speed on my '85 GSL. I finally put a vacuum gauge on the output of the solenoid, and my little Advanced Auto parts hand vacuum pump on the idle speed increaser thingie. When the gauge showed vacuum, I pumped the hand pump. When the vacuum dropped, I bled the pressure. Doing that led me to figure out that my AC idle speed was set too high, and the solenoid was getting turned off, and then back on. I think you can adjust the length of the L shaped arm too if your AC idle speed is way off.

 

Yup- the L shaped arm under the dashpot is adjustable. I can dig up a link on how to adjust that one..I think I saw it on Sterlings web site.

 

If you can dig up that link it'd be much appreciated.