1992 Eagle Talon:
Cleaning the Throttle Body

Brad Bauer gives a more detailed and thorough description of how to clean the throttle body on a Talon/Eclipse/Laser on his page here but the instructions I have given are more along the lines of what my Haines maintenance manual describes and seemed to work for me. However, his instructions are probably better, so take your pick. Note: the last time I checked, myzero.com was off-line. I am leaving the link intact in the hopes that the page will come back -- it's a really good resource (or, it was, anyway) -- but be advised that it may not be available when you read this.

Procedure:

1. Disconnect the battery so you won't cause a spark that ignites the car, your garage and you while working with the carb cleaner. Explosions may be cool, but not when you're at the center of them :)
2. Remove the air inlet tube from the air box.
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3. Remove the air inlet tube from the throttle body.
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4. Roll the air inlet tube out of the way. I put mine on the crankcase cover, where it was out of the way, but where I didn't have to remove the tube between the crankcase and the induction system.
5. Here is the opening for the throttle body:
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   Use carb cleaner and a toothbrush to clean the grunge out of the throttle body.
   
   Once again, I am a computer geek, not a mechanic, so I don't know if this is good practice or a really bad idea that just didn't bite me in the butt, but I rotated the throttle plate (the disk inside the throttle body that rotates when you press on the accelerator pedal) to clean both sides and to make sure the shaft that holds the throttle plate in place was free to turn. I sprayed carb cleaner in the throttle body until the inside looked clean and the carb cleaner dripping out of the throttle body no longer looked like thin oil.
6. Use an old rag to mop up all of the excess carb cleaner in the throttle body. Take a break for a while to give the carb cleaner time to evaporate--you DON'T want excess carb cleaner sucked into your engine when you try to start the car, so do everything you can (short of igniting the car :) to dry out the throttle body before reassembling the pieces and starting the car.
   
   When liquids get sucked into the engine, they can cause a phenomenon known as "hydraulic lock" where the incompressible liquids are stuck between the top of the piston and the cylinder head. Because the liquid is incompressible, the engine CANNOT force the piston all the way up into the top of the cylinder. The resulting sudden stop is very bad on the health and well-being of your engine. Take your time before reinstalling the intake tube.
7. Ok, has everything dried now? Good. Reinstall the intake tube now.
8. Now that the induction system is reinstalled, you're anxious to start the car. However, the car probably won't want to start the first time after cleaning the throttle body. I don't know the reason for this, but I assume it is due to carb cleaner fumes in the induction system. At any rate, keep cranking the engine and experiment with different accelerator pedal positions until the engine catches. You'll probably have to nurse the engine for a minute or so before it settles down. This is normal, so don't let it worry you. That's it--you're done!