Idle stabilizer...stalling during hot, humid weather

[Peter Schulz <schulz@ed.ray.com>]

Finally got around to working on the coupe q this past weekend.  The car was 
stalling so often, or coming close to stalling (rpms would drop to ~200) when 
coming to a stop, that it was becoming a real safety hazard.

So my brother (the family gearhead) and I removed the stabilizer from the car, 
an then removed the solenoid.  I figured that the stabilizer would be "gummed 
up".

Nope.

My brother then "played" with the solenoid shaft, and noticed that it would  
occasionally stick.  So he took out a can of all purpose silicone lubricant 
("this won't hurt a thing") and sprayed the shaft, and manually actuated it.

We were pressed for time, so I reassembled the stabilizer an reattached it to 
the engine.

Guess what?  It worked!!! The car no longer stalls and the rpms don't drop off 
when coming to a stop.  Actually they only drop to about 800. It's better now 
then when I bought the car.

Has anyone ever tried something similar?  Would lithium grease have been a better, longer term lubricant?

Maybe this post can help someone else when the hot weather stalling problem...

Peter Schulz
1990 Coupe Q (behaving for once!)