Re: AAAAARGH! it may be my carb!

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: As mentioned earlier it could be a vacuum leak or the vacuum advance not hooked up. If not, start looking at the ignition system. : When accelerating, you create more resistance across the gap of the plug. Electricity, like water, will find the path of least resistance. In other words, when under acceleration, one of your wires could be grounding out OR your distributor cap could be carbon tracked. Since you say you cleaned up your old plugs and put them back in, it could also be that you have a dead plug. : Start with the simple. Look at the inside of the distributor cap. Carbon tracking looks like someone took a pencil and drew a line, either between contacts or from the contacts down to the bottom edge. : Next, try replacing one plug wire (use one from your old set) and test drive the car. Repeat until you find the culprit wire. If no bad wires, you may want to change the plugs. I don't know about anyone else, but I get the best performance out of Autolites and Motorcraft - I've had horrible experience with Champion and AC. : Make sure you did'nt lose the distributor vacuum advance line when you were : : installing new lines. Sounds to me like a timing problem or a massive : : vacuum leak somewhere. : : : : Last weekend I pulled a plug to take a look. They were all black, but looked good. The shop that installed them must have used the "out of the box" gapping method. they were all .025". : : : So, I cleaned them up and reset the gap (except for the one on the passenger's side I couldn't reach- 3rd back from the front, passenger side) : : : Lo and behold she ran fantastic. : : : This weekend I go after the last plug, and had to put in a new one. (it was very old, and insulator broke upon removal). : : : I used a can of carb cleaner on the carb (factory 2bbl)It was so black it didn't even look metal, replaced some cracked vacuum hoses, replaced the breather, air and fuel filters. : : : It resisted starting, and had some backfiring. So I replaced the wires. I did'nt have the buckos for the good ones right now, so I bought : : : what the shop had. This made a litte difference, but not much. : : : The most noticable problem is upon acceleration between 25 and 45MPH. It surges and backfires. : : : I cannot swing the price of a carb right now, or even the price of shop help. : : : This Mav is used daily - I got it to keep me out of the elements. (normally ride a Mcycle) : : : I should be getting a Chilton Manual this week- I was high bidder at ebay. : : : In the meantime, I could use a litte advice. : : : one more thing, on the side of the carb is a round black device my mechanic referred to as a preheater : : : when I had the water pump replaced. It is set as rich as it will go. I tried moving it from as lean as it will go and back, and different points in between, : : : with no difference in performance.

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