I have a 1984 Ford Thunderbird with a 5.0 CFI and auto trans. I'm in the process of restoring the car and it's all stock. The car has an idle issue. When I start the car it's in fast idle. After around 30 seconds it kicks down to a slower idle. This "second" idle is basically idling too fast to shift into drive or reverse. Maybe after five minutes, sometimes the car will then go to a third slower idle, which is the correct curb idle. Sometimes it will not go to the third slower idle (curb idle) and then I have to quickly press/release the gas pedal and then it will go to curb idle. So, at this point the car has three idle stages - fast idle, intermediate idle and curb idle.
Checking to see if any of the EEC-III experts here would know the correct sequence for the idle stages. The car doesn't have a tachometer, but I know, by sound, the intermediate idle is running too fast. Maybe around 1200-1300 RPM. The car has been in the family since new and I remembered that the car would go into fast idle and then automatically kick down to curb idle. I don't remember the car having an intermediate idle. Is there a procedure to adjust this intermediate idle to a slower RPM? I know there is a process to adjust the curb idle where you put the car in drive and then adjust it to 550 RPM. But, by sound, I know the curb idle is close to spec. I have the Ford Shop Manual, but it really doesn't give any information about an intermediate idle. I rebuilt the throttle body about three months ago. I'm looking for an external tach or multimeter with an "hz" setting so I can get a better reading of the different RPMs. Any ideas on where I should look for the problem at this point? Thanks!
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