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I've seen this on a couple fords. its located on the driver side of the carb and looks like it pushes the throttle or something. as a young guy, none of my buddys know what it does. its not cruise control, im 99% sure of that. if anyone could give me an explanation of what it is and if its okay to leave deleted, that would be awesome thanks. ill attach a photo of what im talking about.
It's called a throttle positioner and is used to compensate for auxiliary draws on the motor at idle like AC etc. Here's a more sophisticated version with a solenoid and an explanation how it works.
That looks like a dashpot solenoid. What it probably does is activate when your AC compressor is running, bumping up the idle so the engine won't stall.
it depends on what you're working on. It could be a simple dashpot to keep the throttle plate from fully closing during deceleration. I think I see a wire on yours, indicating a solenoid that either opens the throttle a little more when the A/C is engaged or it could be an anti-diesel solenoid with fully closes the throttle plates when the ignition is turned off. If your's is working it will either come on with the ignition or when the AC is turned on (assuming everything is working correctly)...
that totally makes sense guys, thanks! the truck is a 79 f250 ranger 400ci, has a/c. makes sense that it would adjust idle for when the a/c kicks on. that power wire coming off of it goes to nothing, ill look around the a/c compressor for the other end of the pigtail and try get it to work.
Likely idle solenoid, let’s the throttle close completely to stop the run on 400s are fond of at shutdown. Wire should go to the right side of firewall.
It looks to be some type of double duty solenoid. One part electric and other part vacuum. 2 adjustments on it. One at the solenoid and and other slides the whole base. It would take a set of shop manuals to figure it out exactly If I had to guess I would say it maybe a form of slowing throttle closing to prevent backfires.
What does this actuator do?
