Hey so im back with, you guessed it, needed help with the maverick. Last time the car started and shutoff after put into any other gear besides park. The carburetor wasn't good even after a rebuild kit due to how many times fuel was pumped in and the car not want to start, so an Edelbrock ASV2 (19069) was put it and after some adjustments the car started right up. Part of the problem before was a wiring issue in which I FINALLY FOUND. The previous owner had an aftermarket radio and some of the spliced wires they used were deeply tucked under the dash and it wasnt until I nearly took apart the dash completely that I both found and fixed those wires. Now the car does start up nicely, and charges well without losing voltage/ draining over time! The problem is that the car is still doing the same thing where it shuts off after switching to any other gear thats not park. The time where it did drive it sounded like the car was stuttering going sort of like a misfire but it jumps between rpms; ex: driving @ 40mph the rpm will be around 2k but jumps +/- 500 rpm in the drive every few seconds. Its possible I may need new spark plugs since they were last replaced 5 years ago, about the same time I got the car. Before I spend more money then needed I just want to check in with others to see if they had a similar problem and how they solved it. P.S. I live in Illinois and the weather is great, along with me not attending more car for over 2 years put some serious wear to the car especially the floor pans. there are LARGE holes on the passenger side and would like to know if anyone has a donor car with a complete floor pan. I'd be more than happy to buy it off anyone who does have it I just need it asap because if I dont get it replaced soon the rust will eat away the chassis and once that happens it'll be game over. If not a floor pan from a donor car, if anyone knows someone in Illinois who can do new custom floor plans that would also work, and be much appreciated!
Thing is, a lot of floor pans in 40+ year old cars may not be much better than what you have. Lot's of floor pans and sheet metal parts are available thru Joe, on Maverick restoration FB page.
Points out of adjustment does a lot of bad things. Plug wires fail under a load when they get too old. Distributor cap & rotor get crusty on the terminals. Make sure your plugs are not fouled. If it sounds and feels like a misfire, good chance it is. Give it a good tune up and then see what problems remain. If you remove your plugs, do a compression test while they are out if you have a tester, or buy one? I had to buy one just to get the extension piece that my 40 year old tester didnt have. The guy at Autozone didnt even know what a compression tester was and I couldnt find it on the shelves....And after he showed me all the AC recharge kits, I was about to loose it and had to leave.
I'd say that Stu is on to something with the ignition blues and there are a number of things that can cause what you are talking about. Just to get it out of the way....what's your base ignition timing set at? That's at least something that's free to check and adjust if necessary.
Base timing directly affects vacuum, add a vacuum gage to the list. If vac is steady, though low, proper tuneup should help greatly. If it's fluttering, probably has dead cylinders. At that point run the compression test. Compression gauge can give results of each cylinder but reading vac is far quicker & easier. Steady vacuum means all cylinders are pumping at least well enough that engine should run smoothly.
@mojo i'll try to check in with Joe on the restoration page. Hopefully I can get something soon! @stumanchu, @Mustang1989, & @Krazy Comet i'll do the compression and vacuum tests sometime this week within the next few days as the weather permits. I think the spark plug wires, maybe spark plugs, are the only thing for the ignition that isnt, but as for everything else ,ignition-wise, is new (carb, distributor, coil, alternator, starter, etc) As for the timing on the carb literally nothing but the throttle position has been changed, besides that the Edelbrock carb has a stock tune. I havent done much due to the fact that driving it is a risk without having another car to tow it if it stalls during the drive. I do have it idling around 900 rpm, it starts right a few seconds after the key is turned. i'll tinker with the carb a bit before anything else, didnt think much of it since the car started right away. Even though this was happening with the old carb and the mechanic couldnt figure it out then.
A lot of people have used early Mustang floor pans with minor modifications to fix a Maverick floor pan.