Hi Everyone,

My name is Jeff and I am new to this forum, I have an 83 F-150 with a 351 2 barrel with 77,000 miles on it that was given to me by my Dad a few months ago. It hadn't been driven for a couple years. So, it took a little work to get it going at first.

I have replaced the battery, fuel filter, air filter, gas cap, thermostat, replaced the cap and rotor and ran Lucas Fuel System Cleaner thru two tanks of gas thu it.

I found that the screws that hold the carb halves together were a little loose so I tightened them all up and checked all the vaccum hoses and it started running a little better but its still sputtering and losing about 30 % of its power after it warms up.

Sometimes it just stalls like you turned the key off for no reason as well, but not very often. When it stalls sometimes I have to floor it to get it to restart, other times it starts right back up like nothing even happened.

I also noticed that the temp gauge isn't registerering, but the engine is reaching the proper operating temp after I replaced the thermostat.

If the temp sensor isnt working could that be the problem ?

Its a california model so its got everything known to man on it that could go wrong with the emission control equipment but I was hoping someone might be able to help steer me in the right direction to diagnose the problem. I need to get it going asap soo I can get it smogged and get it back on the road, its a nice truck.

Any advice you could offer me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for all your help, Jeff

 

Check the fuel filter again. I know you changed it, but it may have picked up some more crap from the tank.

If that looks good, then pull the top off the carb and see how clean it looks down inside. It may need a kit.

 

for your temperature gauge take the wire off and ground it this should "pin" the gauge if it doesnt it is the gauge or related electrical if it does pin then it is the sending unit make sure that the sending unit does not have a lot of teflon tape around it as this will not let the electrical connection be made properly.
I agree with Franklin about the fuel filter it could also be the screen on the pickup in the tank. This can be checked by suppling fuel from a separate container to the fuel pump and see if the problems still occur.

 

I'll check those things out, thanks for your help !

 

Hey I wanted to thank you guys for your help, but it turned out to be something much simpler. There are two vaccum hoses that are connected to the back the choke solenoid that have metal pipes that are tamped into the casting, there kinda hard to see, so I just started feeling around and yanking on things until I found that two of these hoses were just flopping around back there w/o being connected to anything. So, I took out my ol trusty pliers and yanked the steel hose ends out of the hoses, then tamped them back into place real good and then put the hoses back on and WALA !

It runs like a champ, has power out the *** and doesnt miss at all anymore. I even drove it to work today, I swear it has the most power the darned thing ever had and Im getting at least 19 mpg. When the power valve kicks in, its just like a set of secondaries, its awsome and I'm loving every minute of it !

Welp, the rebuild kit that I bought today and cost me $72.00 is going back to the parts store in the morning and I'm taking the truck to the smog inspection station right afterwards.

I knew there had to be a god up there somewhere, I just had to check a few things again before I started tearing into the thing. Let that be a lesson to all of you, double check everything before you start dinkin around and doing things that dont have to be done, it just might be the simplest thing on the planet that saves the day.

Laterz, Jeffy