Hello my friends, I replaced the air cleaner on my corvette yesterday and now it idles ruff, surges and on occasion stalls. I removed the housing unit before the air flow sensor (I think that's what you call it) in order to temporarily fix a crack in the plastic (taped it until I can get a new one). The hose just after the sensor looks good. Could this crack even though it's taped be causing my problem? The car ran perfectly until I did this minor job. Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

I dont know where this crack you are talking about is, but if its near the MAF, tape is not going to cut it, you will have a vacumme leak that will throw your maf off, thus causing it to run rough.
Also make sure you didnt damage the MAF when you took it off.
If that doesnt work, it could be numerous things, like TPS sensor etc., make youre you plugged in everything correctly) double and triple check things.
Also disconnect the battery for a half hour, and reset the computer , it could be as simple as that.
You can also go to autozone or any place that has a scanner, which will pull up any codes.
Hope this helps

 

86 will also flash codes with the paper clip trick, but will only flash codes that are hard or live which means will only show something if the check engine light is on.

 

Is there a "service engine soon" light on when running ?
There is a small vacuum line under the drivers side if TB(for EGR solenoid), make sure you haven't knocked it off.

 

Many good advices here.
I have an 85 with a different ecm but that should not be a problem here.
I have had these stalling problems also.

Check and rinse the contact and plug to the MAF. In such an old car it can be a problem.

If there is a crack infront of the MAF that would not act as a vacuum leak as all air coming from aifilter and crack will pass through the MAF.
All crack after the MAF will be additional none read air and will frustrate the ecm.

Why would a change of airfilter make the car stall?
It must have somthing to do either with having mnocked off a vacuum line or a bad connection in a contact.

The hard vacuum lines underneith the plenum and to the air system to the exhaust are extremely brittle due to age and heat and may breake. I had problems with that and changed all og them.
Check vacumm lines if you accidentially have pulled them out of connection og desturbed them by having pulled to hard on them.

 

Cracks in the air duct between the MAF and TB are difficult at best to discover One must remove the duct and flex it to reveal the cracks. Using a light placed inside the duct while flexing can help identify the cracks. A tube light works great!

A big problem with the older series Vettes is the use of plastics that have become brittle with age and heat. Vacuum lines, rubber hoses and most importantly the under hood wiring harness will crack when disturbed during simple maintenance procedures. Thus making for additional problems and aggravations.

You need to start looking for loose connectors and vacuum leaks.

 

Thanks to everyone for getting back to me. I got it to the shop yesterday where we found a crack in the brake booster that was causing the problem. Sealed it up with some epoxy while they wait for a new one to arrive so, the car is back to running great. Hard to believe this could have anything to do my changing the air filter yet, it seems like too much of a coincidence to have happened the way it did.
Thanks again,
Pete