90 Spider intake problem

["Derek Kaznoski" <sweetpea1998@domain.elided>]

I'm brand new to the list (thanks to the reference from Kelly Mc).

I have a '90 Spider with which I recently had an idle problem (see diy-efi 
digest "Motronic 4.1 newbie" for the whole saga if you're really bored).  
The problem turned out to be an air leak at the joint between the plenum 
chamber and intake manifold at the frontmost cylinder.  The rubber sleeve 
had worked its way all the way to the plenum side exposing a 3mm gap (this 
was aided by some backfiring during my novice troubleshooting, luckily 
nothing was apparently damaged).

When I repositioned the sleeve, I noticed that it is (barely) spanning a gap 
of at least 2 cm between the plenum and intake.  The plenum side should 
actually fit INSIDE the intake side with about 2-3 cm overlap as best I can 
tell.  The rearmost cylinder joint has no such gap, so I guess the plenum 
and block are out of alignment with each other.  The plenum does not move in 
relation to the block with hand pressure, at least not easily (although I 
have not yet loosened all the sleeve clamps and attempted this), so I don't 
think the bracket securing the plenum to the block is loose.

Does anyone know how I can re-align the plenum (i.e., what is the easiest 
way to get to the bracket, and is it adjustable)?

The car idles as usual now, but its always been a little low (about 600 on 
the tach) and has a little hesitation at take off.  Also, there is a slight 
miss when accelerating from lower rpm, esp. in higher gears. In 4th going 
uphill it is the worst. It was doing this before I had the idle problem.  
Can this be because of the malpositioned plenum, i.e., turbulence in the 
intake air due to the wide gap and slight misdirection of flow at the joint?

I'm very new to all of this, so please spoonfeed me details!

Thanks in advance,

Derek Kaznoski
'90 Spider Veloce
http://home.earthlink.net/~derekshana/spiderpix.htm

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