Beautiful 90 Brougham, need a couple tech tips please.

[John Morris #23947]

I'm the 2nd owner of a fabulous 90 Brougham. I never knew these cars were so nice. It's like driving the Titanic, both size and comfort. It has every single power option except moonroof, and they all work great. While cruising at steady speed she runs great. But if I try to accelerate, it won't increase RPMs unless I floor it and kick down into passing gear. So I can't gently speed up, I must nail it and take off to increase speed. It is the carbureted 5 litre, not the throttle body 5.7. I can depress the pedal 3 inches and it will not accelerate, unless it kicks down a gear. Is there a bad sensor? The carb?

[TJ Hopland]

#1 problem I have seen on the olds 307's is they have an air heated choke which does not tend to work well after some age and mileage.  This makes things run rich and ends up plugging the cat converter.   Easy check is to look at it after its warmed up.  If thats it  convert to an electric choke.  Replace the cat if its plugged.  Give it a good tune up with new plugs ect..    Dont be shocked when you look at the plug gap, they are something crazy like 80.  Also for some reason in the other cars (wagons) the back plug wire on the drivers side seems to go bad.  I have no idea why but have seen it 3 times and its always the same wire.

You should see the look on the dealers faces when I sign the papers on a car that 'needs a new motor' then go out and jam something in the choke and then do a burn out of their lots.    Got 3 nice wagons that way.  2 had plugged cats.

[TJ Hopland]

Other thing that could cause your problem is leaky hose on the MAP sensor.   Cant remember where it is but its about a 1x3" flat box with a single vac line and a 3?pin plug.     The other thing is if the base timing is set wrong.  Many people seem to think they can just advance the dizzy to play with the timing but if you do it just confuses the heck out of the computer.  There is a specific mode you have to get things in to set the base timing.  I dont remember the details but on that it may be as simple as unplugging the 4? wire plug that goes into the dizzy's base.  Some you also have to have the jumper in the adl link.

[Guidematic]

 Also, make sure the TV cable (trans kickdown) is properly adjusted. They also have problerms with the TCC solenoid in the trans that can give the same symptoms.

Many problems can crop up on these 307's over the years, and you will have to go bit by bit to resolve them. I know the convertors will plug too, and that is one of the biggest problems. They make no power at all when that happens.

I have just got my '89 Brougham running right. It had a plethora of problems that I can't even begin to list. But bit by bit I got through them and when they are running properly, they are indeed a wonderful car to drive.

Mike