Testing my AAR's ?? Options

[cary]

Well I'm finally getting around to testing my 2 AAR's.
Looks like either of them work. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

Stuck open. Both of them. Bench tested both of them. Neither of them get warm. Ten minutes on the battery charger and still open.

The problem is, I've adjusted the idle mixture with a stuck open AAR. So that's why I have a piss poor warm idle.
The question is, now thats it's 50 degrees in the AM and 85 during the day, can I just take it out of the loop and plug the holes ? Starts crappy any way with the screwed up AAR.

I have an AAR in my $250 parts car. I'm going to test it next. All have the same part #. Funny thing, the 2 cars that have 1.7's and I paid the least for always seem to have the best working parts. To bad the rust god got to them so badly.

[Andyrew]

The quick fix is to have a plug avalible for it (say on the Filter unit..) For warm up leave the AAR hose open, then once its warm, plug it up adjust the idle, and drive.

Tis how I have mine, and I THINK Andy does the same thing if I read one of his posts correctly...

Andrew

[cary]

Well I tested the third one, same thing. No closing with 12v. Then I put all 3 in a 250 degree oven and all 3 closed.
Now I have the first one in the freezer to see if opens all the way.
Now I'm thinking that it doesn't open all the way. That's why I have a crappy idle at cold start.
Because if I pull the outlet side hose off,engine cold. The engine then goes up to 1200 rpms, like it should.

So I'm probably back to a rusty AAR that doesn't open all the way.
So there really isn't a need to loop around it.

[aircooledboy]

I finally took my non-closing ARR out of the loop in my 1.7 after putting up w/ 2000 RPM warm idle for the last 2 yrs. Car now idles like crap for the first 2 min.s or so, and throttle is a little balky, but after that, car runs great. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif) Certainly much better than it ever has run while leaving the open AAR in the system.

[Dave_Darling]

Use a good penetrating oil on the AARs that are stuck. You may be able to free them up.

On the ones that never warm up, you can repair them by opening them up. Bend back the crimped-over lip that holds the "lid" onto the "can". I used a hammer and a chisel (one that inexplicably has a precision-formed screwdriver tip on the end of it! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) ) You'll find a broken piece of resistance wire down in there.

Solder a 12-ohm 1-watt resistor in series with a 1-ohm 1-watt resistor (very close to each other).

You'll need to make sure the wire going into the bottom of the can is not shorting to ground. If not, then you can use the inner end of that and solder the new resistors to that. If it does, you may need to remove the wire and run a new one in with good insulation.

The other end of the two-resistor chain gets soldered to the inside of the can. This is the ground path for the heating element. Make sure that none of the conductors touch the can except at the end, but don't insulate the resistors from the air inside the can. They are serving as the heating element, get it?

Verify that you have 13 ohms resistance from the end of the wire to the can. Make sure that you can still fit the lid back onto the can, and that the resistors don't rub on the bi-metal spring or the other "guts" of the AAR. Re-check the resistance after you get the top back on; you can bend the lip in only one or two places if you don't care about how it looks.

Now plug the AAR in and test it. It should close in ~10 minutes of getting +12V.

--DD

[Ray Warren]

I installed something like this.It works great. I am going to change it to an electric solenoid valve that I can turn off and on from inside the car.

[aircooledboy]

DD,

I have seen that method described before, but personally I have very little experience with all this fancy electronical ( (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) ) stuff. If you or anybody else had pic's of this it would really help.