Idling Issue
 

The teener has been running great for a while and I guess I'm going through withdrawal and need something to work on...anyway, every since I got the car 7 years ago it has idled fine until I try to idle in 1st gear then it surges like crazy; anyone know what causes this? (I had a new ford ranger once with 6000 on it that did the same thing, it was a quick warranty fix but I don't know what they did to fix)

What happens it you idle in 2nd gear?

Kind of sounds like your clutch is dragging.

Same thing happens in 2nd gear...the clutch is fine

I would suggest having the car warmed up well and then someone put it in 1st gear with the clutch in and you or someone that knows 914s look at the engine to see if anything moves as the clutch goes in. The throttle cable comes to mind and that can be from bad engine/transmission mounts, rubbing of cables in the tunnel, etc, etc.

If the same thing happens when the car is in gear and the clutch pedal is depressed, your clutch may be dragging putting a load on the engine. This can occur even if the clutch seems fine. I have seen disks that stick to to flywheel and have to be pried off. Usually this is caused by moisture and rust.

Also, if your throttle cable is too tight, the clutch cable will push it every time you push in the pedal. Does it do it in neutral with the clutch pedal pushed down?

I guess that I didn't explain this problem very well...the car surges when it's at idle and I'm trying to move along in slow traffic say at about 5mph

Is it carbed or fuel injected?

Do you have a lightened flywheel?

So, if you are in traffic and going slow, say 5 MPH and in gear and the engine does not idle well? It is not made to do that as there is not enough rotary momentum to make that smooth. The answer is to keep the clutch in and rev the engine a bit and let it out now and then. If you mean something else, well then we'll need more info?

Thats what I've been doing for 7 years now guess I'll just keep at it...by the way its a 1974 1.8 L-jet