Greetings all -

Well, I finally found a mechanic to at least tune up my carb to
keep it from dying constantly. He says that I let it sit too long
(several months), and now I need a new carb.

This is probably a decent idea. The truck itself is an '85
302 auto with AOD.

So, I want to find a new carb stat. It says Motocraft on the
front, and I think it's actually an Autolite 2160 from prior
research. There's no tag on the carb. My truck does have
cruise control. It's an Lariat XLT.

If any of you could point me in the direction of a place that
can ship overnight with reasonable prices, I'd appreciate it.

The other option is to get a used carb locally (I'm in northern
Virginia). See I bought a carb rebuild kit, but physically my
right shoulder is a bit screwed up and taking the carb off
the truck is a bad idea right now. I could rebuild a carb on
a bench then take it to this guy to have him plug it in.

Thanks in advance,

AD7

 

If you have the kit already, I would try rebuilding it first. The Motorcraft/Autoline carbs are not too hard to rebuild. You just have to pay attention to the details and measurements. If you decide to buy a carb, watch out for the "remanufactured" carbs that the parts stores sell. They are usually junk - poorly rebuilt and do not work properly. I've known guys who went through 3 or 4 of them in a row that were bad right out of the box before they got to one that worked.

 

Thanks for that.

I did some digging around here and found a post that talked about
Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market. Anyway, Tubbs down in Norfolk turned out to
have a carb with AOD. They'll ship it out today or tomorrow.

I'll rebuild it myself, clean it out really good, then have a guy
put it back on for me. We'll see how it goes!

 

Well, I finally gave up and put it into a local shop.
I think I got lucky, as the mechanic was a factory
Ford one for years.

Anyway, he says there were very serious problems
with the carb. Something had come loose, and one
of the ports had to be drilled out - so either someone
managed to fill a port with aluminum, or it was that
way from the factory!

He also said never to use aftermarket plugs and wires
and PCV valves, only factory stuff. The local auto parts
place had given me NGKs, which were fouled.

The carb did have to be completely rebuilt, and in order
to pass safety, the brakes had to be bled, I needed new
wipers, etc. Emissions - he was going to adjust the carb
to pass emissions well then re-adjust it after-the-fact.

Finally, he says the engine is a little out of balance due
to he thinks is one of the catalytic converters being a bit
plugged, but otherwise it should now run perfectly.

I'll be picking it up today (hopefully) and the bill is estimated
at $700. Ouch!

Oh, and someone blocked off other stuff, like heat risers
(?) and monkeyed with other crap. Maybe here in Virginia
they'll keep the 25-year "classic" law and I can have a little
fun in 2010.

This shop has an excellent reputation for honesty - my
sister has been going to them for 20 years. If what he
says is true, then I've learned a lot, and have a truck that
should run right for many years.

 

WOW are your laws crazy out there an inspection? that sucks!

 

Government regulation is not good, but they had to do something to get the people driving unsafe vehicles off the road. From the above posts, even though he had to spend $700, he has a much safer vehicle, and I won't mind sharing the road with him in Virginia. He doesn't realize it now, but he will get that $700 back in fuel costs after a couple years of driving.

 

No, I won't, 'cause it's still running like crap.

And Opossum - As a rule in posting, always assume that the
people involved are highly educated gentlemen who well know
the issues behind government regulation, can figure out basic
math, and the basic concepts involved in the freedom vs. safety
argument.

Anyway, the truck idles OK, and accelerates on strong throttle
OK, but part-throttle or slight throttle is stumbles.
It might be the wrong cap/rotor. I did get this from
Advanced Auto Parts, so who knows, but back when I
was doing a lot of turning of wrenches (over 20 years ago)
my '84 Rabbit would do this when the cap and rotor were
fried (which would happen every 10,000 miles, something
common to the ignition system of that era).

 

I'm not sure what you're getting at here. People are obviously not highly educated they put Obama in the White House. I'm my America freedom always comes before safety. True freedom means the freedom to fail and the freedom to kill yourself through your own stupidity.

As to your problem, an ignition problem will generaly show it's self during hard acceleration. Part throttle stumbles are usually a lean condition causing a mis. The only time ignition problems come up during part throttle is when the vacuum advance actually advances the spark so far that the rotor actually misses the electrode on the cap. Try pulling the vacuum line off the distributor and see if it improves.

 

Opossum - as much as I agree with you on that point, I'm not
interested in putting politics into a truck thread.

I disagree on your analysis. My past experience has proved otherwise.
My guess is that I have the wrong cap and rotor, but it's just a guess,
and I will probably, as much as I hate to, give my truck back to the
shop that was supposed to have fixed this issue in the first place!

 

I'll agree with you there.

And both points are your right.