Anyone ever have this happen?

[smccoy]

Hello everyone! Thanks for all the help and insight in the past!

My '66 came together great and I have been having a blast driving him, but finally had to call a tow truck for the first time tonight. He's parked in front of the shop now, waiting for the sun and the doors to go up... and I don't have a clue where to ask them to start this time!

He fires right up and idles fine. However, when I go to put him in gear he bogs down, won't go more than a few feet and dies. I have a ton of slop and free play in the shifter, and even when I think I'm in gear, it feels soft and mushy. If I revved it real high and let the clutch out very slowly it would go 20-30 yards, but as soon as the clutch was all the way out and it was all the way in gear on it's own it would bog down, lurch, slow down, and lose rpms and speed again. I made it around the block 20yards at a time and put it back in the parking lot and quit while I was ahead before I burned up the clutch.

Any guesses? A linkage or a cable maybe? Here's hoping it's not the transaxel, transmission, or clutch.

Thanks- The guys at this shop are really nice, but Im sure every time they come in Monday morning and find one on their lot that was towed in their eyes light up with the possibilities- they KNOW they have you.

Hoping to get a feel for what they may suggest I need done.

Thanks!

[fatalifeaten]

Wow, the symptoms of the motion sort of sound like a spun drum, but the sloppy shifter isn't that. Could maybe be a combination of issues?

[smccoy]

Reassured by my mechanics, but still searching for the problem. They said they had no problem getting into 1st or reverse, and that the shifter feels fine(must just be used to the tight one on my corvette). They kinda' laughed and said maybe I had been in 3rd instead of first- which would have explained nearly everything.

Except now it won't stay running. It did backfire like a shotgun going off when I started it that time, I just didn't think anything of it. I had recently raised the idle speed because the temperature is dropping here in kansas and that was helping it stay running at stoplights and such until the engine was good and warmed up. Guess I should have mentioned that.

They said a plug was missing off the carb now- can't figure out what they are talking about there and will have to stop by to visit with them tomorrow. Can't think of any plugs on a carb, other than the rubber ones I put over all of the vacuum ports, (When I got it, hardly any of the vacuum lines were hooked up and all were plugged with an assortment of screws in hoses and golf tees and all sorts of strange things.) A box of an assortment of different sized rubber plugs and caps cleared that right up. They might be refering to one of those, I'll hafta' see.

But yeah- turning into a real head scratcher. Feel really good about the mechanics being honest though. They could have sold me $800 in transaxel work for all I knew from the symptoms the other night- and quietly replaced an 0.80 cent rubber plug and I would have been none the wiser.

Here's a toast to honest mechanics, anyways! Now... if only we knew what was wrong!

[fatalifeaten]

I'd bet the backfire you had launched the braised plug in the base of the carb into the stratosphere. When you're looking at it dead center on the carb I'd bet there's a round hole the size of a quarter. Normally it's got a metal slug or plug in it, but the aftermarket carbs are notorious for having that thing desolder and cause a vacuum leak. Even worse, it could fall out and cause a BIG vacuum leak. Would definitely make it run poorly.

[smccoy]

Sure enough! I had raised the idle steadily with a screw driver as the temperature drops. I like to coast into work down an interstate ramp and up into the parking lot- it's kinda' fun to let gravity kick in. Musta' loaded up that carb good b/c when I hopped back in to fire it up- ker-BLAM! It back fired up through the carb and blew out that metal plug.

I had never noticed it there before. They couldn't find a replacement so they did their best and tapped one in, JB Welded and peen hammered around it, (and lowered my idle speed to the correct level by tuning and timing everything correctly). I would have never guessed by the symptoms- it wouldn't die until I had put it in gear and let out the clutch.

Guess the idle jets(?) are different than the jets pressed into service when the engine comes under load and is asked to accelerate and the throttle levers are moved(?) and that big nickel sized whole was screwing up the air fuel mixture and disrupting the vacuum. Who knew? (Fortunately a couple of honest, sharp eyed mechanics did! If you ever get stranded in Kansas, I'll send you to them!)