First time user needs advise,your my last hope..I have a 78 elcomino which has had its dist. rebuild and now it wll not stay Ideled when cold,
does anyone know about the solenoid that is on the side of the carb. that looks like it should pop out to hold the idel on, I have tested it and there appears to be no elctricity to it, my mechnic says it is just for the air and it has nothing to do with cold idel and he says only comes on when you have the air or defrost on... please help

He is right. The solenoid is for the AC. On the passenger side of the carb is fast idle adjustment. Their has been some good posts on this. Check them out.

Welcome to ECC/NECOA Debbi!

It sounds like a choke problem or a disconnected vacuum line. Rebuilding the distributor shouldn't affect the idle unless the timing wasn't set correctly after it was reinstalled.

I'm with '87 here, if all that was done was the distributor--no change to carb settings--I'd start by checking that vacuum advance is connected, then recheck timing. BTW I normally run my timing with advanced a few degrees from factory settings, has not caused a ping in my car.

Thanks, I will take a look at the vacuum advance....

I had the same problem a couple years ago. I had to keep enriching the mixture with the choke butterfly adjustment on the passenger side of the carb. Finally, I reached the limit and it began flooding out. Final solution: a total carb. rebuild.

One thing is absolutely certain. The solenoid you mentioned does not have anything to do with cold idle speed.

good luck!

Back in Dec. I wrote for help on my 78 Elcomino because it was having some cold starting problems, I am glade to say after struggling for several months I finally took it to another mechanic and he found it to be the choke pull off....
Now stays started and will run great after I get the value seals replaced...Always something...

Back in Dec. I wrote for help on my 78 Elcomino because it was having some cold starting problems, I am glade to say after struggling for several months I finally took it to another mechanic and he found it to be the choke pull off....
Now stays started and will run great after I get the value seals replaced...Always something...

Glad to hear your problem was so simple to solve....after MONTHS of aggrevation! :lol:
And yea....it DOES always seem to be SOMETHIN' need attention...don't it? :(