hey hang, new to this area of FTE since i havent had to work on my ranger in over a year.. anyway up until today, she was running like a top.. has a brand-spakin new engine, rebuilt carb, good plugs and wires. the past 2 weeks i've been removing and reinstalling the battery. since its in storage, i never keep the battery on there.. so whenever i need to drive it, i oull the battery from my f-150.. anyway today i took it out so I can get to work on the body and paint it (someone wants to buy it from me) and after 2 mins of running, she began to stumble real bad.. she couldnt idle smooth.. then it went downhill from there.. she was puffing black smoke so i immidately knew that it was running rich.. i opened up a plug on the manifold and she ran better...

anyway so we can come to the conclusion its dumping too much fuel... anyone experience this? the carb is rebuilt and normally when a carb goes bad its with time.. it made NO difference in the position of the idle mix screw, and #1 & #2 plusg were black and wet.. #3 & #4 were just black..


for reference, its an '85 Ranger 2.0L 1bbl NON-feedback carb

 

Check 2 things, 1st, make sure the choke pulloff is opening the
choke correctly, and 2nd, check the float & float needle/seat.

 

thanks guys, but i determined it to be a faulty carb... there is a tiny crack at the bowl of the carb that with the vacuum, it was sucking down all my gas...

i tossed in the carb from my F-150 (even tho its a feedback crap) and she runs like new again. i still need to fine-tune the carb since it was adjusted for an inline-six with a bad intake gasket.

 

This sounds like a case for 'mechanic in a can', or the stuff Paul Harvey likes to sell. Brain fade. Not liquid wrench, not liquid steel.. Ummm.
Forget the name, but a good steel-expoxy or aluminum epoxy would maybe seal the crack in the carb? If it's inside the float bowl, you could clean & dry, and past a small amount over the crack... very low pressure, so it should work fine..
just an idea..
tom