When on in open-loop there are several fixed positions the pins can be in depending on several on/off sensors. The manual states how to enable each mode for testing and that various carb adjustments can only be performed under certain ones. If you cannot reach the specified mode there's 20 pages of logic flowcharting to test each component in the CEC individually. I guess this is why people hate the BBD electronic carbs so much. If the emissions system is not working the adjustment instructions are useless and you are forced to fudge some things to get it close enough, or just do the nutter bypass and get another carb because computers are hard.
I think my major strength here is that I'm approaching this from the opposite direction. Whereas most skilled mechanics of this era vehicle (and most jeep people) really don't know much about electronic emission systems my background is early computer theory and digital electronics so this is all making total sense to me as opposed to how the carburetor in general works.
Again, I want to point out that the AMC repair manual is amazing. It's twice the thickness of your average Haynes manual and is pretty much identical to that of the average phonebook. It's like reading a tome.
