🚀 go-pugleaf

> 
> > I have
> > found that if I depress the gas pedal (when the car is
> > cold, i.e. left outside over night) the car will start
> > rough idling - it will start but after 10-15 seconds will
> > start to shake. The shaking lasts 1-3 minutes. At the end
> > of this period the idle speed shoots up. 
> 
> I have an '83 Escort with the same symptoms.  Only recently did I notice
> that the idle speed shot up after some minutes of rough idling.  It
> sounds to me like the fast idle is somehow not kicking in until the car
> moderately warm.  Is this likely?  If so, is it easy to fix?

Actually, this sounds like an awfully familiar story.  On FWD Chrysler
products cars, (non-injected) this sort of thing is a regular occurance,
though in all fairness, I should say that the owners manual tells you how
to prevent/fix it.

On these carbs (Holley 5525, if my memory serves), the bushings through
which the choke shaft runs through can gum up *very* quickly.  When this
happens, you have a number of different symptoms which may appear, either
individually or in combination:

(1) Engine is reluctant to start when cold.
(2) When started cold, engine will run roughly for a while.
(3) Engine will remain on fast idle for a longer time than temp will justify.
(4) May hesitate when accelerating from a stop when cold.

When any of these symptoms appear, the first thing to try is to lubricate
the choke shaft pivot points, along with any other moving parts that move
with it.  On Chrysler cars, they recommend that his be done routinely every
several thousand miles, but I've seen them start sticking sometimes after
only a few hundred.  (I usually clean things up with a little B-12 spray,
then lubricate them with some MOPAR rust penetrant, which contains some
graphite that seems to keep them free longer.  DON'T use WD-40 - it seems
to gum up too quickly afterward.)  It should be easy to do on most cars,
and it's worth a try before looking for something more complicated.