New here! with stumbling and idle question

Hey everyone, im new to this forum. To introduce myself im 17 and living in SoCal (southern california) I just recently bought a 65 falcon 2dr with a 67 200cid in it. I like this car already. I got it what i think to be cheap @ $2000. It is in fairly good condition, few scratches in the paint and other minor details.

Anyways... the engine ran like crap when i got it. The valves were bad, i mean rrrealy bad. sunk into the head and few burnt ones. i took off the head and had it mechined and rebuilt, $200 and like 5 hours of work, not bad. It ran very well (other than the idle, talk about that in a second) but two days ago after droping my sister off at the movies it was stumbling through the entire powerband. It would run, then miss for a few revolutions, then jerk into running agian for a few more revolutions and so on. Think of it like 'if' the engine was running fine, jamming the gas to the floor then instantly letting all the way off then jamming it agian over and over. The oil psi and coolant temp were fine. after stumbling home it started running differently. idle was normal and would only stumble if it got above 1.8k rpm. I checked to see if the advance was working properly and it was. but heres my first question, there are 2 springs in the distributor that pull it back from advancing at idle. one spring doesnt even touch untill the advance is turned quite a ways, is that normal? and if it turn and release the advance the one spring that acctualy does something cant quite bring it back to its full starting point but its close, does this mean i need a new spring? it went back to the same place every time so i figured that isnt the culprit (but it didnt help either). yesterday i got up early to try and fine the problem but it was running completely fine. From running like crap to running fine made me think it wasnt the fuel system or carb tunning. Does anyone have an idea as to what the problem was? i had a guess it was the coil, but i have no idea how to test it. o yea, i put a pertronics (cant remember the name haha) conversion kit in to remove the points like a week earlier so i took that out to see if it was the problem and it wasnt so its nothing in the distributor (i think).

If your still reading my long ass post , my idle has never been smooth either. anything below 850ish rpm and it shakes and misses (like i had a big cam or something) My timing is set to 8deg. btdc. What could be the problem? i cant think of any other info to post on this problem so please tell me what else would help.

Thanks everyone.
Moe~~~

BTW Heres a picture of my ride

HEY MOE

.....WELCOME!

....THE TWO SPRINGS IN THE DIST. MEANS YOU HAVE A LOAD-A-MATIC SYSTEM. I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS. HOW DID YOU SET THE TIMING? DID YOU UNHOOK THE VACUUM ADV. AND PLUG IT. HAVE YOU CHECKED TO SEE IF YOU TIMING MARK HAS MOVED? DO YOU HAVE A 1100 CARB. WITH THE VACUMM SWITCH ON IT?

.....YOU SHOULD CHECK YOUR VACUUM ADVANCE WITH A TIMING LIGHT TO MAKE SURE IT WILL ADVANCE.

.....SOUNDS LIKE THE TIMING MARK HAS MOVED. THESE MOTOR WILL IDLE DOWN TO 450 RPM AND CHUG AWAY AND NOT STOP. THEY WILL NOT RUN AT 2* OR 3* AFTER TOP DEAD CENTER.

.....THIS IS A COMMON QUESTION ON THIS FORUM. IT ISN'T ALWAYS THE SAME FIX. CHECK AGAIN ALL YOUR SETTINGS AND SEE IF YOU FIND ANY PROBLEMS.

LIVE IN GRACE

LEROY POLL

LEROY POLL, thnx for the quick reply man when i set the timing i did unhook and plug the line. i havent checked to see if the timing marks have slipped yet, will do that soon though. how do i tell if i have a 1100 carb? im not sure what a vacuum switch is lol but it only has one vacuum like coming from the carb to the distributor if that helps at all. I checked the vacuum advance and it was advancing (even wile it was stumbling) tomarrow im going to check the timing mark and retime it but for it to go from running bad to running fine, i think something else might also be wrong ???

~~~moe

i like your car alot... chopped mirrors? is that legal?

do you have two barbs on the vaccum advance on the dizzy?

read the stickys about the spark controll valve and loadomatic dizzy at the top of the page.

thanks 64falcon200! There is a miror on the left hand side making it legal. If you mean the vacuum diaphragm, it only has one line going into it. wow, i didnt know they put any of that in carbs, learn something everyay hu 8) ""failed or stuck carburetor vacuum advance valves, clogged internal venturi vacuum passages"" those are the only two failure options that could have happen because i checked the others when it was stumbling and they worked. know any easy ways to test these? although if they were the reason, it runs fine now so they most likely would work fine now. But what do i know ?

Moe~~~

Hey Moe. Where in SoCal do you live? I could come by and help you try to get it idling real nice. We could also rebuild your carb, because that was a big idling issue on my part. Do you have a timing light and everything? I'm in Orang County, and I'd love to come see your ride if you're up for havin' a couple guys come out and try to help you get it idling real nice. Let me know.

-Mike

Edit: PS - Love the Jay and Silent Bob avatar.

did you read the stickies about the SCV and load-o-matic?

the load-o does not have counter weights in the distributer

i had the same problem and sometimes the plug became foulded at or about the same time the car would die
even worse after the carb was cleaned and kit installed even worse the carb is wore out trottle shaft lose in need of bushing
luckily i found a NOS carburator and is alot better

ps yes nice ride.. SoCal do you have lo-jack? definately something to consider

in the thread about SCV, Redfalken posted this "67 and older engines (except 66 and 67 California Emissions) utilized the load-o-matic distributor" My engine is a 1967 200ci and the head is for California, not sure where the distributor is from but according to that i shouldnt have a load-o-matic. I still dont know how to tell if i have a load-o-matic or SCV so ill post some pictures and let you guys tell me what are the signs of telling if i have those .


This isnt my distributor the pictures i snaped of mine sucked but i saved this picture a wile ago (cant remember who's it is sorry) and it looks exactly like mine. If its your picture and you dont want it posted message me ill take it down. So are those 2 springs the counter weights you were talking about 63merc? my advance diaphragm looks the same too.



this is my carb. it says holley remanufacturing on it. The guy told me it was rebuilt like a year ago. So how do i tell if i have a SCV? That cut away in the sticky about SCV's doesnt show what it looks like on the outside.

I have nothing to really contribute...BUT.......SWEET RIDE FOR $2000

That would be the Holley 1940 1bbl carburetor. Real easy to work with.

looks like a power valve the carb looks like a holley rebuilt holley

uploaded some pics to photobucket i included the url
http://s114.photobucket.com/albums/n253/63_merc/
also trying to attach a linky but i didn't resize so they are freakin huge

autolite 1100 front view fuel bowl side NOTE NEW :shockin: 43 year old ie NOS carb purty huh 84 delivered


spark control is right behind the vac line


load-O-matic, works with SCV, dizzy over view petrinix ignitor and NOS vac advance


load-O-matic sans rotor

long story short if this is identical to yours you have a load-O distributer and non load-O(non SCV) carb... no work
the 2 spirngs are just returns for the plate vac advance

drop in a DSII and gm module, easy cheap and works great

even tho the dsII is a good set up and the load-O has been wrapped for lousy performance..
the load-O completely bases the advance on what the engine actually needs

scenario pulling a hill at low RPM the DS2 or weights in general will be no help but a load-O /SCV will swap over to the venturi vacumn, because of the low vacumn and trigering the SCV, advancing the spark more
this is why is was introduced and how it works to get you better fuel economy

oh ya you can dissconnect the heater hose, like mine, unless it is anywhere near cold
i am going in and resize the pics...

well, i went the cheap way and put a duel advance dizzy in (got it cheap from a garage) but it didnt fix the problem. It did help the idle and help the engine run a little smoother.

Could someone post a link to as much info on a holley 1940 carb as they have? i looked around as best i could but cant find anything on it. turning the idle mixture screw doesnt seem to do much. If i could get a link to how to tune it that would be great! or if anyone knows the # of turns for the screws or jet sizes for a 200ci that would also be great.
thanks!

I can stop by next week if you still wanted to do that.

You know this all sounds like it could be attributed to a vacuum leak, too. I know there aren't too many places for air to get in, what with the integral intake manifold and all, but you outta rule that out for sure first.