First a little backstory on my 73 chally. Earlier this week I had taken it up my road which isn't far, and I had turned up a little driveway (just a hair up hill) to turn around and the car died. I could start it up but had to keep pressing the gas to keep it running. It would not idle. Next day I adjusted the idle on it (eddy 650) a little bit and thought I had it. Took it up the road and turned left onto the main road which is uphill and it had nothing. Died in a few feet and pulled the same stunt. Even when I had it running, it would backfire ever so often. I adjusted the distributor cap and got it runnin a little better, but figure I better give my cousin's boyfriend a call who is a mechanic and I swear can fix anything. He came over tonight and got the timing pretty close and it was running good. He noticed that when the mechanic put the motor in he didn't put a fuel filter on, and the right side of the carb was clogged with debris, so we fixed that and put down fuel filter on my list to do. Got it running pretty dang good and took it up the road, now nighttime for its first official drive. I turned left onto the main road I had a few days before and it ran real good. Took it up a hill, down a hill, some flat, followed by another hill, had it up to around 50, and it ran like a scolded dog. I was pleased!
Then I turned into a church parking lot (who was letting out of wed. night service haha. Didn't mean to disturb em!) and the parking lot was a steep road and the car died and pulled the same stunt it had before. Wouldn't run unless on the gas. So we were tinkering on it out there as people were driving away from church and I did get my first compliment! Two good ole boy rednecks (which we all are in this part of NC
) pulled up in a dodge truck. They said "man thats a beautiful car. Is that a 2 or 4 barrel? What size motor it got in it? Oh thats a stout motor...well she sure is beautiful." Answered their questions and told em I appreciated it. Limped the car home and my cousins bf noticed that the carb was not squirting ANY gas unless I was pressing the pedal. Also noticed that the motor was extemely hot, sounded like the water was boiling. But it wasn't shooting out the radiator and hadn't built up pressure but man it was roasting! He noticed the clutch fan had a bad clutch, so it wasn't turning fast enough, so thats ANOTHER thing I gotta do. Even though it seemed to me that it still shouldn't have got that hot during that little time, even with a slow fan. He also recommended putting in at least a 160 thermostat. Told me he thought it was probably some gunk in the carb, either from setting or that ethanol gas. It was like it was sticking in there and just wasn't getting any gas. I plan on taking the top of the carb off and cleaning the bowls real good and checking for anything, and replacing the clutch fan, seeing about a thermostat. Add that onto taking the old window and regulator out of the passenger side (which I have taken apart and put back in 3 times), taking it to get aligned, and taking it to get my gaps better, and get my windshield wipers working, and the list goes on!!! Still, that time I was ripping down the road was worth it!! Just something every minute with em, and just when you're close, they bite ya. Been busting a$$ with college and two jobs and working on the car in my spare time. Thats the name of the game though, hope a good carb cleaning is all it needs. Opinions and comments would be helpful!
