Lets start simple...Do this with the car cold and not running and a freind to help you:Take off the air cleaner housing so you can see the whole carb and see into the carb. Push the choke plate open with your finger and hold it open.Have your freind step on the gas and push it to the floor.Look inside the carb with a flash light.You will see another butterfly.It should be standing straight up and down.If it isnt... your not getting full throttle travel.Now while you are looking in the carb,have your freind take their foot off the gas.The butterfly should close all the way.If it does not...once again... you dont have full throttle travel.Fix this issue before going any further.If it opens and closes all the way as it should while performing this check.Throttle travel is fine.The throttle not opening or closeing all the way could be one of several problems. 1. Throttle cable is binding up somewhere(look for kinks or very tight bends) also look for fraying of the cable/sheath. 2. carb linkage is bent/rusty or needs lubrication 3.Choke is sticking closed fully or partially.This could be due to rusty/bent linkage or the choke heat stove spring(round housing on side of carb)rotten/broken in housing.This can cause the choke plate to stick(the door you pushed open with your finger)This door is connected to a linkage rod that is connected to a fast idle cam that is located with the throttle actuator linkage on the side of the carb(follow the throttle cable to it) 5. Idle is set too high or idle screw is turned in too far. When you step on the gas the choke linkage should be loose and you should be able to flop the choke butterfly with your finger with little effort(look at all the linkages on the carb and see what moves when you flop the choke plate around) See the one with the screw or bolt in it that moves when you flop the choke plate?? thats the fast idle cam.It allows the high idle when the choke is closed so the engine will run with the choke closed.If it requires more effort to move it than it takes to tap a key on your key board its binding up and you need to fix it.If its all loose and moves easily.You need to see if the choke is unloading as the engine warms up. Push the gas to the floor and release it.The choke plate should trip shut...if it does not... the spring in the choke heat stove isnt doing its job properly.You can adjust this provided the spring is still good.Now back to the round housing on the side of the carb... It will have 3 screws on its face and an area on the top edge with little lines/notches on it.The cover may be black plastic like or metal and colored like the rest of your carb.It will have a line/pointer on it as well and the pointer should be lined up with or at least in the immediate vicinity of the lines on the housing edge.Note where the covers pointer is currently sitting and mark that mark on the housing so you know where the choke was adjusted before you messed with it.Carefully loosen the 3 screws(dont take em out)loosen them so the cover will turn.Sometimes the cover will have a slot in it so you can turn it with a screwdriver.Your cover may also have an electrical connector with a single wire connected to it.Make sure it is connected if so equipped.(we will worry about"if its getting power" in a minute)If its not there and should be(you will have a little metal rectangle(spade) on the cover without a wire on it).Or a metal round dot on the housing if the spade has broken off.If this is the case you need a new part.Its called the "choke thermostatic coil"if its good but no wire start hunting around the carb by the choke coil.It will be a lone wire with a black or brown plug end on it.If you find it...plug it back in.Now... if you have a simple circuit tester you can check to see if the wire is getting power by turning the ignition key on and putting the circuit testers point (probe)in the plug... with the other end of the tester hooked to the ground on your battery the light on the tester should light up.If it does good! if it dont... you need to chase the wire and see where its broken or if its fuseable link is bad and repair it(turn the ignition key off now).If its working or you dont have this component(you should...73 and up have electric chokes) You can adjust the choke by turning the cover.Those notches I told you about??? those indicate rich and lean choke settings.There should be one mark longer than the others in the center of the series of marks.Set the mark on the cover so it is pointing to the second mark to the right of the the long one (you should see the choke plate move when you turn the housing cover)If it does not move turn the cover till it does to be sure the spring is engaged with the choke lever)Set the adjustment and tighten the 3 screws.If the mark on the cover was waaay past the mark you need to set to before you messed with it...the spring is probably toast and you should buy a new thermostatic choke spring assembly or someone tried to adjust it and messed up the adjustment.Set it where it belongs and go from there.The choke plate should trip shut now when you step on the gas and release it.If it does not... turn the cover one more line to the right and see what happens.At this point I want to urge you to purchase a chiltons manual for mavericks/comets(time to go hunting on evil bay) since it contains thorough and complete instructions on how to adjust your choke as well as a great many other things you will need to know now that you own a great old car.This writing is only a summation to get you in the ball park and allow you to get dirty a bit and help you out some.With out pictures and diagrams to aid the proceedure This is the best I can do for you.Now hopefully the choke plate is closing as it should.Re- install the air cleaner housing and lid.Start the car,It should have a higher than normal idle at this point(heres where a tachometer comes in handy)You dont want the engine racing like mad just idleing higher than normal hot...about 12 to 15 hundred RPM.Take the top off the air cleaner off and look at the choke plate.It should be open slightly about 1/8th of an inch tops if its more or less adjust the cover housing again(shut the car off)turn the housing one more notch.After re-adjustment if it was necessary, start it up again... now let it idle for about 5 to 10 minutes and watch the choke plate to see if it opens up any as the engine warms up(it should move a bit).Now tap the gas pedal.The idle should drop to a normal level and the choke plate should be fully open.If does this...your choke is now set well enough that it shouldnt give you trouble and should work as advertised.If the idle is too high with the choke closed...remember that fast idle screw you hopefully discovered ??back it off till the idle is acceptable.Try this and see what happens and let us know what you find.Good luck. I should have used doomaflatchie,My fingers wouldnt hurt so much right now
Hooked up a vaccuum gauge (with it warm) and it's pulling a constant 20 or so at idle. I probably won't be able to hook one up with it cold untill this weekend. The compression numbers came out good. The range was 130-140psi. All the plugs came out good. Still smoked some this mornin for a minute or so. My driveway is turnin black under the tail pipe. Too rich? Also still has a bit of a miss/stumble. Not very bad, but with all new ignition components Id expect different. Thoughts?
The rich condition is normal.The choke makes it run rich deliberatlyOnce its warm and the choke is fully open it should not be rich.As for the stumble,sounds like you need to adjust the accelerator pump shot.I believe the carter has a linkage rod that actuates the pump piston??? you will have to bend it a bit till the stumble goes away.Of course cold with the choke on a slight stumble is to be expected till the choke pulls off a bit and the engine gets some heat in it.Does it only stumble when cold??? As for your miss,I still am leaning towards a plug with a cracked insulator.Does it miss all the time??? or only when its cold and the choke is on???
New set of plugs. No change. It's got to be a damned stuck valve. Everything else is either new or troubleshot. Also, I held a peice of paper to the exhasut and the exhuast stucked the paper in every time it missed... Ive been told this means a stuck valve? Now, I had a mechianic take the head off. I swear this didn't happens before then - Could he have screwed somethig up when removing/reassembling everything?
yup sounds like a stuck valve...Take the valve cover off...my guess is one of your exhaust valves has a rocker thats over adjusted and hanging the valve open.With the valve cover off visually inspect all the rockers/valve springs etc...To find the suspect valve you will have to bump the engine over or use a breaker bar to turn the crank so you can close both valves on each cylender and look for the one tahts not at the same closed height as the others... when you find it you will know.Once you find it,you can re-adjust that rocker by running the engine and backing off the rocker nut till the engine runs straight(its a messy procedure...oil every where) or you can do it cold.Just make sure the came is on the base circle for the valves you need to adjust.(both valves closed on the compression stroke)oh wait...sorry your rockers are shaft mounted...unless you have solid lifter valve train there will be no adjustments possible.That said its probably a stuck valve as you thought from the get go.Pull the valve cover as stated above and look at the height of the valve spring retainers...one will be lower than the others indicating the culprit.Good luck Bob. PS: its possible the mechanic flubbed something but highly unlikely since these engines are pretty simple and "allmost" fool proof but stranger things have happened.
You should meet my mechanic. Anyhow. Thanks for the help! I will take a crack at it this weekend hopefully.
ok, finally checked everything I could. I don't believe I have a vacuum leak,it is idling awesome. I accelerate and it tries stall so I have to release the accelerator and then press it again and it will go without issue. Should I just break down and rebuild the carb? One weird thing that I found coming off of the choke is a fitted steel pipe that simply "bends" around the carburetor and is open on the other end facing the towards the exhaust manifold, and it does not seem to affect the operation of the car whatsoever open or closed. Obviously it is there for a reason. It also tries to stall when i go around corners The only electronic component that i have not replaced is the coil. The fuel filter has been replaced. and I know the jet is spraying in the bottom of the carb. Thoughts?
That tube is for the choke thermostatic coil.It should be connected to a boss on the exhaust manifold(it is the source for choke heat so it pulls off as the engine warms up)Sounds like you have an accelerator pump problem...this will cause the stalling symptom you are experiencing.If the carb has not been re-built then yes...re-build it.follow the instructions in the re-build kit.Your one barrel is probably the best carb to cut your teeth on with a first timer re-build.They are super simple.if the carb has been re-built recently then you need to adjust the accellerator pump linkage.if you have the carter 1 barrel carb look for the linkage rod that actuates the accelerator pump it will have a U shaped bend in it...to decrease accelerator pump stroke you have to squeeze the U a tiny bit at a time till the off idle stumble goes away.To increase the stroke you open up the U by putting a wide straight slot screw driver blade in it and twist to open the U up.(Till the stumble goes away)If your car has the Motorcraft carb on it.The proceedure is the same the motorcraft just actuates differently.Good luck...hope this helps you
Bubba, one thing you can check since a "mechanic" worked on it. make sure the pushrod is actually in the lifter and also make sure they arent too long. if it is actually moving, and not frozen at the rocker, and not bent, and actually in the lifter, you may be able to replace it with a shorter one as long as it is of course not too short. follow mavmans directions and watch carefully. you should be able to decipher these tips and his easily by watching how the valves that are closing correctly react compared to the one that isnt.
low float setting will do that to you as well as a bad fuel pick up tube in the gas tank.Its not unusual for the screen to rust off effectively shortening the fuel pick up in the tank and keeping it from pulling fuel off the bottom of the tank.Easey check...Fill the gas tank and drive it...if the problem goes away...its the pick up...if it still stalls around corners....float setting needs to be corrected.
I had the gas tank replaced because it has been stored for so long. What controls the float setting, is it a screw?
Stay tuned, i found a leak in my Fuel Pump, and I am now in search of one. Hopefully this will help some of my problems.
