So, just a few days ago, Monday April 10th, I was on the freeway with 3 friends headed to a rehearsal in the middle of LA. I want to see what the top speed on my Mav is, so I'm pumping it and going as good as I can, and I find out that the fastest mine will go now is about 86 mph. That's all I could get it to, but that's not my problem. I slow down a bit, and after a while at 70 mph, I suddenly lose a lot of power, the sound of my engine goes down in pitch quite a bit, its shifting weirdly and just is all around worse than before. I get off the freeway and get to a stop light, and the car starts shuddering (similar to how it would right before it dies) and I think its about to die at a stop light. It doesn't die, but it just shudders and vibrates constantly whenever I'm stopped. Furthermore, I try to go once the light turns green, and there is a bit of a delayed response, and some exhaust clanking noise below 10 mph. I park, and go to rehearsal, and then I have the car towed home. After it's home, we deduce that the fuel pump is bad, because it wont' start, and after we manually put gas in the carb it would start. On Wednesday, I get a new mechanical fuel pump, and I go to put it in. I have to get the Power steering off, and move some lines and it's not too bad. I'm hoping the mechanical fuel pump will work better than the electric one from a boat that was on there (Another story, blame the previous owner). After taking it off and switching between the 2 pumps, moving the power steering a thousand times, and learning about the stupid ignition system that's hooked up to the old pump, I get the car to start. It will run very rough, as long as I keep my foot on the gas, but it won't Idle now, and it still just runs really badly. It chugs along, awkwardly, and even after forcing it around the block, it still died, twice. Any suggestions? all the lines are clean, the pump is new, everything is tight, only thing I've thought to do is check the Air/Fuel idle mix and try to make it richer but I can't find the screws on the carb I have. (Motorcraft 2700 VV; I hate it too)
And check the ignition timing. Had a distributor spin on me once that made the car run like you describe.
I put in a new fuel filter, and all the spark plugs are good, I will probably check the Distributor again though.
I'll check the Distributor Timing. I fixed it about a year ago to pass smog so maybe it did go out again. Thanks
As hard as you were running it....might have spun a bearing. Happened to me one time and had the same symptoms as you. Need to pull the dipstick and see what the oil looks like.
My Brother and I looked at the oil and I do need to have it changed, but how would it change or look if I had spun a bearing?
If your engine has a lot of miles on it the timing chain may have jumped a tooth. Check the initial timing, if it is retarded and the distributor hasn't moved then that could be the issue.
I'll check that too, thanks. As far as I know the mileage isn't crazy high, its got 77'000, but for all I know it could be 177'000 or even higher due to there only being the 5 digits on the odometer, but I'll still check out the timing chain
