[gcanavy]

hey all Ive got a problem with my 65 mustang thats blowing my mind. Its got a 289 with a holley 600 carb. i had it running good then out of the blue every right hand turn i take it stalls the engine, this doesn't happen with a left hand turn. if I take the turn really slow its fine, but at anything more than an idle crawl it starts to stall. the faster I take the turn the quicker it stalls. I can sometimes save it by feathering on the throttle. Any inputs on what would cause this would be great.

Thanks,

George

[woodz428]

Pretty small amount of info to go on, have you checked the fuel level in the bowls?? That should affect it in both directions, but since you never stated what you had checked, I thought I would start there.Center pivot floats aren't as likely to have an issue like this as the side pivot ones. There shouldn't be any electrical piece that is in the area of the steering, but you might also check the wiring around the coil and to the dist. The wires become brittle over time and it's possible that in the one direction a wire is losing continuity. From your basic description it sounds fuel related though. Maybe the fuel pick up in the tank is getting something drawn into it ...so many things and no list of what you may have checked.

[Chris Kemp]

Maybe that when the chassis shifts for the approching turn you're loosing ground. Check all of the ground wires: engine to body and chassis, engine to negative post. Not knowing what type of ignition you have, just make sure that all of the componits that need to be grounded are grounded good. If you only have a ground going from the battery to the engine then you also need one from the engine to the fire wall.

Does it do it when the engine is running and the car setting still in neutral or park?

Another thing to check is if you have power steering, you mave have a valve in the system hanging up, building to much pressure and choking the engine down. If you do have power steering you can check this by removing the belt for the power steering pump, cranking the engine and trying it in neutral or park.

I hope this helps!
Chris

[Chris Kemp]

Yeah like Woodz says, the float settings could also be a good place to look.

[SSedan64]

I had the same thing happen to me, if I turned in the direction that sloshed gas in the tank towards the pickup it would stall. Good old water in tank. Drove me crazy, tank had drain plug but had a lip around the drain plug bung so all the water wouldn't drain out. Took about 6 bottles of Heet before it finally quit.

[Chris Kemp]

Yeah it could be a fuel pick-up problem, something in the tank, water in the fuel, power steering if you have it, if the factory fuel line has been replaced with a rubber hose it could be getting pinched when you turn, a problem with a ground or a brittle wire loosing continuity when you turn and fuel bowels and or float problems. You may only have a ground from the battery to the engine and up until now the engine was grounding to the body (chassis) through some other means and now looses ground when you turn. I know that sounds odd but when you turn a cars steering wheel everything else in the car shifts as well. Check all of these things and let me and Woodz know what you find. My curiosity it getting the best of me.

Chris

[T-bucket23]

i Doubt it is a fuel issue unless it is the float. There is enough gas in the line on a carbed engine for it to run for a while. It would be a bigger issue with injection. If the floats look ok, I would look for a wire that could be moving, getting pulled etc when you turn. Do you loose all power to everything. I think those Mustangs used to have a harness issue in or near the radiator support.

[red65mustang]

slim chance that it is the cause of this problem but Chet is correct....
DO remove and re-wire or replace the main power feed harness that runs from the alt down thru the radiator lower support...
95%+ chance it is totally shot....

it is a weird problem...

I'd remove the power steering belt and try that first...

add a clear $5? Purolator gas filter at the pump inlet hose to see that there is some gas there after it stalls to rule out the tank???

[gcanavy]

well Im not sure what happened but for some reason now its not doing it anymore. I did check all the grounds they were good. i did lower the bowl hight a little, so ill have to keep messing with that. The gas take is full, so im not sure how the gas sloshing from one side to the other would make a difference. I did put some heat into the gas to absorb whatever little bit of water that might be in there. All fuel lines are clear of any stearing components so nothing is getting pinched. This year in fact does have that wiring harness that runs right along the radiator support, so i could see that becoming a problem. ill have to try that clear fuel filter. thanks for all the help.

[red65mustang]

LOL,,,dang it I wanted to know what did cause it so I wouldn't think about it anymore!!!!

here's a link to excellent correct mustang wiring diagrams...

http://www.hammar.dyndns.org/~djhamma/wiring.htm

suggestions:
move the harness to the top of the rad support (where it belongs)...
move the voltage regulator over next to the alt,,,you only need the idiot light (green/red?) wire going into the car....
wise to add a fusible link or slow-blow fuse to the main power feed (black/yellow),,,there is none now...

[gcanavy]

well I actually didnt have to mess with the wiring at all. All I did was put in an inline fuel filter with a clear case and lowered the bowl height quite a bit. It still seems to want to bog down a little but now it doesnt matter if im turning or taking off straight. it only does that if im light on the gas to accelerate after slowing down. Im not sure what would cause this but im looking into it. but thats some very helpfull advise you gave me. thanks

[SSedan64]

Originally Posted by T-bucket23

i Doubt it is a fuel issue unless it is the float. There is enough gas in the line on a carbed engine for it to run for a while. It would be a bigger issue with injection. If the floats look ok, I would look for a wire that could be moving, getting pulled etc when you turn. Do you loose all power to everything. I think those Mustangs used to have a harness issue in or near the radiator support.

Yeah Chet, I should have included that. My car does have fuel injection with return line, hi pressure type. Water drove me crazy.
Todd

[woodz428]

Originally Posted by T-bucket23

i Doubt it is a fuel issue unless it is the float. There is enough gas in the line on a carbed engine for it to run for a while.

Under most cases and most conditions you are correct. However, I have seen enough cases and conditions that go beyond most. Just one example; I had an old '54 Ford(Chevy 327 and the rear half of the truck it was part of) car hauler years ago. It was supposed to have been operable as the guy used it to take his car to "demo derbys", they were popular at the time, but I had problems every time I'd try and use it. It would idle all day long, but the minute you took it somewhere, or tried you wouldn't get more than a half block and it would die and take several minutes before starting again. I replaced the filter and pump and checked carb float levels, but it still did the same. I went into the tank as a last resort and had someone blow air through the lines..as they were doing it I could see through the sender hole a small bunch of what appeared to be corrosion being pushed back into the tank. I thought that it had set with a low tank long enough that it had accumulated some corrsion in the tank that had gotten pulled into the line and was restricting it. After it was all ejected, I took some long grabbers and pulled it from the tank...it was a piece of cloth that had apparently torn off when it was part of a larger wrag that had been used as a fuel cap. It worked great after that, but took a bunch of tracing to find it. The fuel was just passing enough to have a small amount of fuel that allowed it to idle, once the fuel demand increased and it couldn't draw enough the engine pulled the bowls dry and it would die. I guess that the fuel would be drawn through while it set, from the vacuum that was created by the pump, and eventually got another small layer of fuel into the carb and it would begin again.
The only more frustrating diagnosis I had was a T-bird ammeter.... if there is ever a problem in that area, I may expound on that .

[red65mustang]

might as well do the simple easy tests first (????):

disconnect and plug the vacuum advance and test drive...
still does it:
remove the dist cap and check the centrifugal plate and springs for no binding,,,spray with WD40 and test drive...
(a worn mechanical dist body does do really weird things, how many miles on your dist and coil and what ign system, points?)
read the timing with a light to confirm it doesn't start adding centrifugal to soon=worn springs,,,just a nominal value is it shouldn't start adding timing about/around 1500+ on a stock motor...

full gas tank=gas cap "must" vent or the pump will starve,,,crack open the gas tank cap and test drive....
(I have had vent problems with the aftermarket caps,,,open the tank on a hot summer day and "whooose")

sorry, should have said to blow compressed air up the tank line when you installed the clear filter to be sure the tank pick up filter sock is clear
(filter at the pump inlet will keep that tank scale out of the pump if the pick up sock is shot which is fairly common)