My trusty All-Trac has spent the past few weeks carrying me between the Bay Area and Humboldt county, including a trip up to Seattle. On the way back from Seattle (and ever since), however, it's developed a peculiar issue. When starting the car with a hot engine/prolonged driving, it catches early, idles rough, and often dies unless you nurse the throttle. That said, it still starts beautifully and idles quick when cold, and idles fine when hot, or after about twenty seconds of rough, groggy running. Any thoughts?

could be throttle body - i've seen that before. sometimes when carbon deposits build up, a rough idle will result. maybe cleaning it might do some good...

Have you noticed any loss in fuel economy? If so I'd look at the cold start injector on the top of the intake manifold.

My economy has been astounding - about 29-30mph on the highway with two passengers. I'll pull the throttle body and look for buildup - and maybe see if my idle screw has grime on it.

Quoted from ajmcafee

My trusty All-Trac has spent the past few weeks carrying me between the Bay Area and Humboldt county, including a trip up to Seattle. On the way back from Seattle (and ever since), however, it's developed a peculiar issue. When starting the car with a hot engine/prolonged driving, it catches early, idles rough, and often dies unless you nurse the throttle. That said, it still starts beautifully and idles quick when cold, and idles fine when hot, or after about twenty seconds of rough, groggy running. Any thoughts?

I must concur with other posters:

Pull the throttle body and clean it out with carb cleaner.  While you are at it, clean the air cleaner which you have to remove usually to get into the throttle body.

Check the vacuum lines; make sure all are snug.

Check the cold start injector; do some cleaning.

That said, my A-T has been acting up as well.  I've been putting 1000 miles a week on it the last few weeks, and now it idles rough when cold but sort of okay when warm.   When I put it into 1st, it hesitates on acceleration, but other gears do fine.

Well, I changed my oil yesterday, and noticed that what I think is the cold start injector (plug on the top of the block with a rubber line that connects directly to the throttle body) rotates freely in it's mount, and that some of the hoses are worn and loose. I'll get some photos up as soon as this rain stops.

Any recommendations on sources for hoses, or is my local napa/kragen/carquest bearable for that sort of thing?

Quoted from ajmcafee

Well, I changed my oil yesterday, and noticed that what I think is the cold start injector (plug on the top of the block with a rubber line that connects directly to the throttle body) rotates freely in it's mount, and that some of the hoses are worn and loose. I'll get some photos up as soon as this rain stops.

Any recommendations on sources for hoses, or is my local napa/kragen/carquest bearable for that sort of thing?

For new hoses, you can get bulk hoses at PepBoys or Napa, or if I am in a money crunch, I find a regular Corolla in the junkyard and use those hoses. So far they have worked great.

As for my engine problem, after tightening the clamps on a few hoses and cleaning out some things (throttle, PCV valve, etc.),
the hesitation on acceleration has gone away.