I don't know, honestly. I don't think a timing problem, no matter how bad, would cause the problem you're having but then again I do not know how the ECU would react to the timing being off even a little. But, I doubt it. I do know that electronics that act "weird' for "no good reason" are often failed (I'm a computer "tech" for the last 20 years, seen a lot of weird crap, and computer motherboards can have the same issues documented below)

I do know that capacitors fail, and when you read about what they do to ECU's here you will see why I am suggesting looking into the ECU as the root cause. http://avproecm.com/
Specifically look at this page: http://www.avproecm.com/process1.htm

I have no personal experience but I read what they have on their website and I believe these guys know what they're talking about. They're doing more than a re-cap on the boards, they're actually fixing damaged traces which goes a lot further. You might give them a shout and see if they think your symptoms match a failed ECU.

Thanks man, I'll look into it!

Ok, I emailed them and told them what was going on, let see what they say!

Well, I appreciate everybody's input but I just dont know what else to do. I've tried everything everyone has recommended other than replacing the ECU and checking the Timing. So I'm taking it into town to a mechanic to see what he has to say.

I'll let yall know how it goes.

While I understand your frustration, your mechanic isn't going to know considerably more about the vehicle than the folks on this board do- Before you spend the $$ on a mechanic, I suggest getting the ECU rebuilt by avpro. Its a huge unknown that the mechanic won't be able to diagnose any better than anyone here- and if its never been done (it hasn't) then it very likely NEEDS it anyway. So, spend the money to get it rebuilt, try it, and if it doesn't work, THEN throw in the towel. Thats just my opinion, you can have it at face value

post a picture of your ICS.
Looks like you have alot of original water hoses and such. Maybe the ICS wasn't replaced?????
I've never worked on an '89 that had the "central heater" on the T.B. That was a "recall" item added. It is needed for really cold and especially for really damp condition back east.
Where you live,,I would eliminate it to get rid of extra water hoses and get rid of that rubber gasket thingy.
A small ammount of Silicone should be OK on the rubber gasket, just don't get any near the trottle body vacuum passages on the T.B.
I really want to see you get this thing going. Sierra snow will be in your back yard soon.
Again, please put a pic. of you ICS,,,I still think that s your problem and your chacing phatoms, waisting money and losing valuble time that should be spent 4 wheeling.

Hey Dave! I like your attitude!

I just got back from a mechanic and he unplugged the connector from the Mass Air Flow Sensor while the Raider was running and the idle dropped from 1900rpms down to about 1200rpms. So he told me to get some MAF Cleaner and see if that did anything, if not he said get a new MAF Sensor.

How does that sound to you guys?

Also, this was the first time I drove it more than 20 miles since I bought it and I notice in town that after going to get a Subway sandwich I started the Raider and it was idleing at 750rpms....by the time I got home it was idleing at 1900rpms again.

What do you all think about that?

Dav, the old throttle body had a new ICS on it and the replacement throttle body has the old...when I switch the throttle body over it didn't make one difference so I left the old ISC on the salvaged throttle body and saved the new for a back up. If that make sense. If you still would like a photo I'll get you one, or two.

Thanks again for all the help!

the reason I asked for a photo is that I figured being new to this you might not know what the difference is in the improved vesion. I could have just described it I recon.
The originals are partially metal and brown plastic as I recall. The new ones are all black plastic.
Now I have a fast idle going on. I've been to lazy to swap my ICS this week , but I'm betting the 2 year old one on there is already bad.
My ECU is the original. Most of folks on here have replaced / rebuilt ECUs , but I think '89s were the exception and got good capacitors,,,,I shouldn't have said that as I probably jinxed myself.

Today after getting back from the mechanic I drove the Raider around and to my surprise it was idling at 750rpms for about 15 minutes. Parked it and turned it off, came back about 10 minutes later and now its back at about 1800rpms.

Does this tell anyone anything?

Bump to the top for GP.

Well I was under the hood shaking wires and tapping on stuff trying to figure out whats causing my high idle when I noticed smoke. It looks like one of my heads is burning oil, I assume a bad head gasket? Or would that be a Valve cover gasket?

Also, I was following the vacuum lines looking for a leak again and noticed that at the bottom of the canister there is a hose connected, but the hose doesnt go anywhere...is that right?