[Mr. Wormy]

I have been working on a 73 mustang with a 351 cleveland 2v, for the last 3 days. put in new plugs, points, condencer, cap, wires, rebuilt carb, car seems to run just the same as it did before any work was done. car had set for 5 years, gas was dead, drained all old gas, put in new gas. car runs but barely you have to put choke on all the way shut to run at all. checked number one cyl tdc, wired it 1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8 counterclockwise. plugged all vac lines including power brakes, still runs barely, all i have done has not made one bit of differnce i need some help what have i missed. thanks Wormy

[ScoTFrenzel]

Originally Posted by Mr. Wormy

I have been working on a 73 mustang with a 351 cleveland 2v, for the last 3 days. put in new plugs, points, condencer, cap, wires, rebuilt carb, car seems to run just the same as it did before any work was done. car had set for 5 years, gas was dead, drained all old gas, put in new gas. car runs but barely you have to put choke on all the way shut to run at all. checked number one cyl tdc, wired it 1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8 counterclockwise. plugged all vac lines including power brakes, still runs barely, all i have done has not made one bit of differnce i need some help what have i missed. thanks Wormy

Try and see if it runs better on starting fluid, or a squirt can of gasoline shot into the carb. That will isolate ignition or fuel.

Flush the fuel lines out.

IF you have good fuel being delivered to the carb, I'd bet the carb is still a dead player.

You probably will need 2 gallons of fresh gas with 4 bottles of carb cleaner in it to flush the system, and it will take a while to get the gas slime out.

[Mr. Wormy]

I have filled the carb with fuel from a squirt bottle, while tank was empty gas line unhooked at carb, carb is a simple one to rebuild cleaned good blew out all passeges with a compresser, seem like a vac leak somewhere, car ran an drove when parked 5 years ago.some reason it wont run at all without choke all the way shut, then when it does run, it runs like its missing and popping thru carb and tail pipes.could be timing, took me a while to get dizzy broke lose must be a ford thing Checked tdc with my thumb over the plug hole, rotor pointed straight at number one plug wire on dizzy cap. Could it be the ignition box below solinoid on fender well, what would the box being bad do, not crank at all, or run bad when cranked. Any ideas would really help. thanks Wormy

[onebadmerc]

Check the pressure coming from the fuel pump, when they sit the rubber diaphragm in the pump dries out and they don't work too good.

[Mr. Wormy]

But would it not run with the carb bowl filled from the bottle, gas line un hooked at carb. Can check fuel pressure with my vac gauge, should be 5 to 8 pounds about i guess any more ideas every little bit helps thanks Wormy

[Mr. Wormy]

P.S.car looks like your 73 mustang onebadmerc except its a grande. Wormy

[carsavvycook]

Check the vacuum advance, and the points breaker plate for wear, or looseness. My 1973 351C 4V with factory dual points had this same problem, and this was what it took to fix it.

[Mr. Wormy]

Thanks carsavycook, i will check it in the morning, would it make the car die out when you give it gas.

[Barry.M]

G'day Mr.Wormy,

It does sound like an ignition problem to me. OK, you've rebuilt the dizzy ?, check to make sure everything is where it should be, then once you're happy check the dwell angle.

Use a dwell meter or Timing light with dwell check function.

Setting the points gap will only get you in the ball park as far as dwell goes, you need to set it at 26-30 degrees, recommended for 351C.

Too far outside this dwell angle either way and you'll get a gutless dog of a motor. Are you using a new or known good working coil ?. Run full 12 Volts to the coil until you get it running then switch it back to normal voltage through the ballast resistor.

If this fails then I think you need to start from scratch just like any troubleshooter would. Perhaps ask a buddy to help who has got some skills in the area. Quite often a fresh pair of eyes can nail the problem.

Hope you get it sorted........Barry.

[carsavvycook]

Originally Posted by Mr. Wormy

Thanks carsavycook, i will check it in the morning, would it make the car die out when you give it gas.

Mine would idle great, and would not rev, and then stall when throttling it quickly. It would only rev under very slow acceleration, and would start crapping out/farting/stalling between 3200-3500 rpm.

I am now leaning towards replacing the stock distributor with MSD.

Stephen

[Mr. Wormy]

Thanks everyone the problem sounds like a dizzy one for sure, will check this morning its just that you have to run choke all the way shut to get it to run at all, that has me thinking its a bigtime vac leak could be chasing my tail on the vac theory, i will report back as soon as i have eliminated dizzy and coil trouble Thanks, Wormy

[onebadmerc]

You really won't want to hear this but I had the same problems on my 73 Mustang. I rebuilt the carb, replaced the fuel pump, wires, plugs, points and it still didn't run any better. The car ran good before I parked it but it just sat too long. What happened to my car was a valve hung open and condensation built up in a cylinder and rusted the bore, valve and seat. I tried everything to get it to run better but it just wouldn't. I finally threw a compression tester on it and found a dead cylinder, I ended up swapping in a different engine. Hopefully you don't have the same issue and is something simple like a blown intake gasket or bad dizzy.

[Mr. Wormy]

onebadmerc the car sat for 5 years, but it was in a inclosed garage heated and cooled, dosent mean it couldnt be a bad valve or valves just seems like a timing or vac issue, if it ran better i could diagnose it better, vac gauge jumps from 5 to 10, and it sounds like its missing on 2 or 3 cyls, that would make it have low vac Thanks for all your thoughts somtimes you need a sounding board Thanks again Wormy