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Hey Guys, My 86 f150 300 six stalls at the corners in drive only when the engine is not yet at operating temperature, she'll stay running in neutral.
Once she warms up she's ok.
I suspected the distributor cap so I changed it and the rotor, the wires are good. Also if I turn the headlights off it somewhat helps. It seems to me that maybe it's producing less current somehow when it's damp.
Or could it be carb related somehow, I just did the carb cleaner thing with amazing results, purrs like a kitten at idle now.
Another place to look is the coil. Pull the large coil wire out and make sure there is no corrosion.
If that looks ok, then I would suspect the carb is freezing up. Once the engine heat reaches the carb, it thaws out and runs ok. If you have a header on the engine, then that's a problem, since the original exhaust manifold was mated to the intake to help heat the carb.
If that's ok, then you need to make sure the original air cleaner is working with the heat hose going to the exhaust manifold. If you get this working, it will for sure prevent any carb icing problems.
Thanks to the both of you, I kind of thought the coil might be weak but never thought of corrosion on the wire and then I go and clean the carb without thinking of what comes before it duh...
I'm going to see to these things tomorrow and let you know.
Well it snowed for a couple of days up here in Ontario, and then of course I had to catch up the running around I had to do but I managed to pick up a fuel filter and install it. Then I yanked the ignition wires to inspect them. They are all clean and greased. The coil wire to the distributor had a little soot in it at the coil end. I cleaned that up and applied some grease to it. Carbon in there would be indicative of moisture getting in there, right?
Also, Franklin2, all the carb heating stuff is there and in unusually good shape including the weaved cloth lining on the carb heating pipe. Tomorrow, I'm going to go around everything with a spray bottle while she's getting up to operating temperature and see what happens. Thanks again you guys
Last edited by lanechange; Apr 11, 2009 at 06:22 PM.
Reason: Typo
When you first start it up, make sure the flapper door in the aircleaner is closing, and it's sucking air up the heat hose. You should be able to hold onto the heat hose, and feel it start to get warm as the engine draws warm air up through it.
If it's not working, then I would suspect the sensor in the aircleaner. Sometimes I can pry the plastic top off of it, and fiddle with it to get it working. It actually has a little adjustment on it too, which you are probably not supposed to turn, but I do anyway and it will start working again.
When you first start it up, make sure the flapper door in the aircleaner is closing, and it's sucking air up the heat hose. You should be able to hold onto the heat hose, and feel it start to get warm as the engine draws warm air up through it.
If it's not working, then I would suspect the sensor in the aircleaner. Sometimes I can pry the plastic top off of it, and fiddle with it to get it working. It actually has a little adjustment on it too, which you are probably not supposed to turn, but I do anyway and it will start working again.
Well, I went out to play with the air cleaner door. This one has a vacuum hose running from the tree and seems to be a sealed unit with a slip in tab at one end and riveted at the other. The door itself is open when cold and requires a fair amount of pressure to push it closed manually. There is good vacuum at the hose. This can't be a very expensive part if available, think I'll just go get a new one and see what happens
Franklin2, my air cleaner door is hooked up with a single hose to the vacuum tree, my neighbor says that it should be a hose from the vacuum tree to a heat sensor and back on to the air cleaner door. I've looked for it in my haynes manual and can't find it. They don't seem to cover the vacuum actuator.
Thanks again everyone, I've got it all working including the vacuum actuator, the little arm on it was disconnected, something you would'nt suspect. Anyways she's running like a charm now. I very much appreciate all your help