Good thoughts Joel on the searching question response..  I will have to see
how much the change is.  I have been told that it could be an intake leak
also.  Lots of input but the oxygen sensor would seem to make sense.

On the bad catalytic converters.  The failure mode is the inside bonding
material breaks down and the converter ends up in little pieces and some big
pieces that plug the exhaust to the muffler.  The first time this happened
was when my wife was on her way from California (where I live) to Oklahoma
for a dog show.  The cat converter was replaced in New Mexico.  Lasted less
than a year and I had to pull the muffler to unplug it.  It still has small
pieces in it and I need to get into it again and clean it out.  Thing is the
smog is coming up again this year so I need to replace the shell of a cat
with a new one.

Also thanks to Tyrone for your idea but it wouldn't go over well with the
smog folks in California.

William Greenamyer
Between Las Vegas and LA in California high desert

> ----------
> From:         Joel Walker[SMTP:jwalker@bama.ua.edu]
> Sent:         Thursday, July 15, 1999 8:04 AM
> To:   Greenamyer, William L
> Subject:      Re: Gas versis catalytic converter
>
> the "searching" of the idle, up and down, is a function of
> the oxygen sensor telling the computer that the mixture is
> too rich ...whoops, too lean ... whoops, too rich. like
> that. it will vary normally, up and down, a little bit but
> it should not go up and down more than, say, +/- 50 rpm, i
> think.
>
> is it possible you've been getting bad converters? were they
> all the same brand, from the same store?
>
> i'd also wonder how it is that you think it's the converters
> that are going bad? are they clogging up or what? or is it
> that the mechanics are SAYING that the converter is bad and
> 'we' need to put another one on? is it possible that there
> has been another problem all along (like a flakey idle
> stabilizer) and they've been 'fixing' the wrong thing? just
> a thought.
>
> joel
>