There is no ETC plug to deal with on the 2.6. There is, however, a vacuum line you need to plug. It goes from the VSV to the charcoal canister purge valve.

With that plugged and the idle set to 900RPM, you should time the engine to 12*BTDC. If your timing light is adjustable, either set the knob to 0* and time the pointer to 12* on the balancer or set the knob to 12* and time to pointer to 0* on the balancer.

Michael

Thanks Michael.

I wonder... if there's a problem with the canister purge circuit, I guess it could mess with setting the timing ?

Truthfully, I am stumped on this one. I know it does not help Steve very much, but we have covered just about everything that needs to be covered. Unless he is doing something wrong, which I don't think so, the darn thing should run.

I have seen the strange idle thing before and I could swear it was a TPS issue. Or it was EGR. ? I just do not remember. It was someone else's rig, but between those two things, we fixed it.

I would sit down with the manual and a multi-meter and start testing the various sensors. And again, checking everything that has been checked multiple times already...

Michael

Gentlemen,
When I was asking for similar advice, we noted that the shop manual said do one thing, Haynes another, and Chilton's still another. I think I remember from that to take the information from the emissions sticker? underneath the hood as the authoratative source when setting timing/idle.

Ya IÆm just at a loss. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

I just don't know where to go from here. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Maybe IÆll just drive it for a while and see what is dose.

Me too...

Didja check to make sure the throttle wasn't sticking open some ?

I went out this A.M. and set the timing on mine, as I was having a wee touch of ping when racing a co-worker in his Honda on public roads the other day. (he won, surprised?)

It gave me a chance to play a couple "what-ifs" out.

Hooked up the light, stone cold motor, on the fast idle still. 14* BTDC . Didn't un-hook or plug anything.

Pushed the throttle a bit, and watched the jump when the TPS opened.

Plugged the line to the canister, no change.

Let it warm fully, no change.

Unhooked light, drove about 2 miles. Hooked light back up, no change.

Plugged canister line again, still no change on hot engine.

Reset timing to 11* BTDC, ( a little margin for E85 petrol ).

I tell you all this just to re-assure that it seems difficult to set the timing wrongly. It appears that even if you set it on a stone cold engine, without plugging the canister line, it should still be correct.

The only thing that seems as though it would make a difference is when the ECM sees the TPS go "off idle" (open). That's why I'm wondering if the TPS is acting up. It _IS_ possible for that switch to be intermittent. MINE WAS, but on the WOT side. If the contacts get dirty, you could be making contact one time, and not the next. I wrote a thread a while back about opening it and cleaning the contacts. If you are down to your last straw, and wanna try it, let me know if you can't find the post. I think it's under "Throttle Body clean-up" or somesuch title.

But first, make sure that throttle ain't binding on ya. If you look at the TB, you see there is a primary and a secondary plate. They open progressively, the primary opens first, until about a quarter throttle, then the secondary opens. There's an L shaped bracket sticking up, off the end of the shaft that controls the secondary. Mine sometimes sticks. Check it out carefully, and hit all the pivots and stuff with some light oil.

Well that is good to know. IÆve noticed basically the same thing.

And IÆve been thinking about the problem.

I think my only issue is the computer advancing the timing when it shouldnÆt. That would explain how I set the ignition timing low the first time. If it was just sitting on advance and I set it to 12 BTDC then when it eventually let the timing advance back down it would have been low.

And from what I can surmise, every now and then it doses the same thing.

So to cause. Since IÆve pretty much ruled out everything else (vacuum related) it would pretty much have to be the TPS in some way acting up. Right? From what IÆve been reading thatÆs the only thing that lets the ignition timing advance. ???

One thing I noticed was that when I manually pulled the throttle cable and letting it snap back down sometimes it wouldnÆt go to the stop. So I let abit of pre load off of it by adjusting the little nut/ slider plate thing that holds the throttle cable to the throttle body.

And it seamed helpà

If the ignition advance sticks in the high position again IÆll change out the TPS with a spare I have and see what that dose.

I'm not 100% sure about that, I did read that there are a few timing "stages" that the ECM goes through when the engine is warming, but I did NOT see evidence of that today when I was experimenting.

Books say that below around 70* coolant temp, that the ECM slightly advances the timing for smoother starts. Then, between 70* and 140* it says the timing should retard a few degrees to warm up the cat conv. But, like I said, I could not verify that by what I saw today.

When yer drivin' though, there are other things come into play. Vehicle speed is one of them. I think the coolant temp is another. There are "tables" stored in the ECM with timing curves that it uses to adjust the timing while driving.



That could well be part (all?) of the problem. There should be a slight bit of "freeplay" in the cable at idle.



Be sure and verify the new one is 100% reliable first, of course. Use yer ohmmeter and make sure both switches go VERY close to zero, EVERY time you turn the switch. If not, might as well go ahead and open it up and clean the contacts before installing it.

Steve, I feel yer pain! I know how frustrated you must be getting... spending all that time and money, and problems like this. ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shiner.gif" alt="" />

I want to add just a bit on adjusting the throttle cable:

The one thing that you want to avoid at all cost is to have the cable too tight. When the pedal is pushed to the floor, you need to be certain that you aren't "against the stop" on the throttle body.

Loosen the adjusting bolt, have a helper put the pedal to the floor. Under the hood, by hand, push the TB all the way open. Snug up the cable, and tighten the bolt.

If you don't make sure there is a bit of play at wide open throttle, you will eventually snap the accelerator cable, or worse, damage the throttle body.

After I did my 3.4 sawap in my trooper, I was having the same problems you are having, crazy surging after warmup at idle, and dead spots when accelerating. It was driving me crazy.
I ended up unplugging the IAC valve, and all my problems disappeared. I tried putting in a new one, and the problem came back when I plugged it in, so I just left it unplugged.
It's been a year now, and it still works.
I don't know if you have an IAC, but it might be worth trying to unplug it. Might be a lame fix, but I've not had any problems.