Thanks, all. You've confirmed my suspicions and these were my first
thoughts.

Curious thing: plug wires are perhaps 1.5 years old, good quality. I suppose
there was a small break in the insulation at the coil. While I was
inspecting connections and such, I began to hear a clicking sound that was
unfamiliar. I noticed a major breach in the wire right at the coil. I
touched the wire and it fell away. I suppose that water got in and caused
the shorting. AhA! thinks I. I replaced the wire but it didn't solve my cold
starting problem, of course. I was amazed however that the engine ran at all
with such a large break in the coil wire.

I'll do some testing and get back to ya'll.

mordo

On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 10:30 PM, David Beierl <dbeierl@attglobal.net> wrote:

> At 05:53 PM 12/4/2009, mordo wrote:
>
>> Long story short, I have since not been able to start the engine without
>> coaxing the throttle a bit. It will not hold idle when cold. After coming
>> up
>> to operating temp, it will idle but at about 850 rpm and a little bit
>> lumpy.
>> My question of the collective experience is: what is the most likely
>> component to cause this condition under the conditions described above?
>> BTW,
>>
>
> I'd unplug the idle stab board and make sure its connections are dry and
> clean.  If that's not the problem I'd follow the procedure that John Rodgers
> posted here a while back for thoroughly checking out the idle stab system.
>
> Yours,
> David
>

--
mordo
1990 Carat