Mondial fluctuating idle

Please help, I am having problems with my 87 mondial cab. The car starts fine when cold, but after it warmes up it develops a fluctuating idle. The problem is more noticable during the mornings or at night. When I drive the car it tugs and pulls during accelaration. I have cleaned the distribuer cab and changed all spark plug wires and plugs. I have changed all intake hoses. I clean and inspected AAV and it works fine, and I changed O2 sensor. What I did notice was the fluctuation is in sync with the frequency valve. What I mean is the frequency valve vibrates on and off as the car's idle. When I disconnect the frequency valve I notive a drop in power but the fluctuation disapears. I checked the ohms on the frequency valve and it measres 2.6 ohms and the connection from the frequency valve has a fluctuating voltage from 10.5 volts to 11.5 volts. My car is also running very rich . I have been reading every post possible to gather info but still can't figure it out. Please help!

 

Today, I kept checking the car for loose or dirty connections to see any change. I feel confused or maybe its all the fumes from the overly enriched exhaust I have been inhaling. I checked the TPS as per Carl Rose and was confused on the bridging of wires and were to connect the multimeter so I order a new TPS. The only shop down here that fixes imports left my car sitting for 3 months, so I got the hint and took it home. I think its pointless to have a nice car sitting in the garage. If I must I will change every part out, I just hope I don't have to.

 

I have been following Steve's recommendation to oleholy from " Protection Relay Conversion and Fuel Distributor Starting Alignment" thread since I think I have the same situation. I think my FV is going crazy and vibrating very loud, so I tried one of Steve's test to disconnect the green wire from the O2 sensor and the idle went to normal, and when I connected the green wire back the idle went up and down. I dnt know what that means and I did change the O2 sensor 3 months ago. Is there any other test I can do to confirme the O2 has gone bad. I am afraid the wires from the car have gone bad since they are 20 years old and they are very closed to the exhaust.

 

I hope I am doing this correctly, I checked the volts from the O2 sensor green wire at warm idle and the volts were all over the place. I got reading from .34 volts to .8 volts and mostly bettween .6 to .7 volts which I think that means the o2 sensor wants to run rich. That might explain why I smell like gas fumes. I still have the old O2 sensor, so I will try to change it out to see any difference.

 

Many thanks Steve for your reply, I connected the old O2 sensor and let the car idle warm and checked the single wire from o2 and it averaged .8dv it went up and down in the tenths at steady rate. The idle felt better and more consistante than with the other o2 that spiked from very low to very high dc reading, its like I had my meter set at random. How can I find out which o2 sensor is giving the correct readings? Is it the o2 trying to correct a bad setting or a faulty o2?

 

So I left the old o2 sensor on and checked the duty cycle, since It gave me a steady idle. I connected my meter 15 (-) and 8 (+) and let the car idle warm and got a 4.6 - 5.5 acv and with o2 single wire disconnect it stayed at a steady 4.7 ac volts. Does this mean my car is running at closed loop? I will try with the other o2 as soon as the car cools down.

 

Correction on post 4 and 6, I measured the dcv from the o2 sensor disconnect, the single wire that is connected to the o2 is were I got those readings. I tried and connect meter on the #2 and ground and got different reading nothing nothing I can pin point. I want to know if I am doing these test correctly or wrong?
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Thank you Steve once again for your input, I think it is the air injection system at fault. When I changed all the hoses the T connection was rusted so I changed it with a T connection I picked up from Home Depot. The original cost as much as a hyper-flow cat so I used a cheap sub.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Has anybody else have this problem and how did you fix it, since I cant find a T connection with the same inner diameter.

 

Well, today I check all my connection in the air injection to make sure I did not have any air leaks. I used new hoses and made sure everything was snug and tight. I did notice that when I removed the hose a small amount of water dripped out of the hoses from the check valve. Is that normal or are the check valves bad? Well there was no change, after the car warmed up the idle fluctuated again. It made sense to me that I do have air leaking through the exhaust causing the o2 to think its lean and making the FV work harder to rich out the mixture, but why the fluctuation? How do I check the FV, I tried to pull the rubber from the FV connection but was afraid, and how do I connect it to my multimeter? Once again thank you Steve for your feed back, I know with your guidance we will fix the car.

 

I have noticed the sensor plate from the air flow sensor high and not flush, could this be the problem.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I did the checks again, I did the test from service bullitin No 80-29
Test #7 2.3-6.5 acv fluctuating up and down o2 connected
Test #7 4.7 acv o2 disconnected
Test #8 .3-.8 dcv flutuating

At warm idle o2 disconnected getting (+) from the single wire from the o2 sensor and ground .02-.03 dcv

When I got the car I did the 30k service but I never drove the car before I bought it. When they deliverd the car I was not impressed with the performance and thought it was very sluggish compared to my bmw z3. I thought nothing of it since the mondial was the least performing Ferrari of the 80.
Thanks again Steve I feel we are very close to a fix.

 

The problem with the bad idle started 3 months ago, I felt it was a mixture problem so I changed the o2, all the hoses, spark plugs to iridium, plug wires to taylor spiro wires, and cleaned the distributor cap. I recently put a bg 44k in the gas tank which I think made things worst. The car only runs well now with o2 disconnected, and when I plug it back in I feel that Im not driving but rather riding a horse.

 

Today I did as Steve suggested and closed the air injection past the plastic check/ cutoff. I started the car and the idle fluctuated when cold, I connected my meter to o2 single wire and ground while o2 disconnected and gave me a .5-.7 dcv and the idle stabalized as it warmed up. The car did sound different overall, and I am hoping this was the problem. I will check again tonight to confirm the numbers I got with my meter, and I also need to order the parts. If anybody has the cross reference numbers please post them for an 87 mondial cab 3.2. Ferarri has it as valve/check 121769 and valve/ cutoff 147390. Thanks once again Steve, I will keep posting to deny/confirm fix.

 

I love ferrarichat, it has become my #1 site. Steve Magnusson, thank you for doing what you do.
I fixed the air injection system with new hoses, check valves and cut off valves and it did make some improvement on the car, but that was only part of the problem. I am finding out this mondial is going to need alot more TLC. Lucky for me, I have Fchat and I am going to need some more help.
I have been reading several threads so as to check my car. I found out my slow down light does not light up in the dash, somebody took out the light bulb. I put in a new bulb but just like I suspected the light stays on and does not turn off at all.How I should I go about in fixing this? I did ordered a new Magnaflow cat, will this fix it? Is this also a cause for my mondi having poor performance.

 

I hope im getting my procedures correct, I turn the key and the slow down light lights up, then I turn the car on and the light is still on. I disconnected the thermocouple and measured the ohms between both wires and got 12.5 ohms, so I think the thermocouple is good, does this mean the ecu is bad. I price checked the ecu and well 1500, wow. I guess I should hope im getting my procedures incorrect and that the ecu is good.

 

Steve, I connected my multimeter to the o2 and ground, while o2 still connected to ecu and cold. I started the car and I got a reading of 5.4 v while warming up. As the car is warming up the dc volts start dropping slowly all the way to 54.5 mv and the idle and the multimeter are going up and down. I disconnect the o2 and get a reading from the o2 of 23 mv, would I be correct to assume that the car is running lean and I must have another air leak, or is this a fuel pressure problem. When I disconnect the o2, the car runs fine but the o2 reads lean, so what do I do next.

 

Thank you Jgoodman for those words of encouragement. I feel I’m pretty much on my own trying to fix this car. I am not a mechanic; all I have is Fchat and anybody willing and patient to guide me through the procedures. I did take the car to a mechanic, but the car sat there for months at the back of the shop. I don’t think the mechanic wanted to fix the car, I guess it’s not cost efficient.

 

Thank you once again Steve for your help, I have learn so much from your many posts and threads. I think at this point I am very close to fixing the car but I also think I’m killing the car. The car is not running rich anymore as before my cloths would smell like fuel fumes, but I checked the oil and the oil smells like fuel. I took the car back to the shop and I am hope it will not sit there for months. I know it will be something so simple I overlooked.