1966 Mustang coupe - Starting for the season, tune-up and carb questions
My 66 coupe was restored almost fully (just need to replace a couple more chrome parts) last fall. It's been sitting in the barn since last November, so I had to hook a battery charger to it. Once the battery was back up, I checked all the fluids, then started it. Did I miss anything? What I mean is, what's the easiest (on the car) way to get it going after sitting so long? Should I have checked or done anything else before starting it?
Also, since she had a fresh tune-up (plugs, points, oil, filters, etc, etc) last summer, should she have another this year? Last fall was the first she's been actually ran on the road in about 14 years.
She's pretty easy to start, but here's another question. (please be easy on me, here, I lost my Mustang guru - my Dad - to a heart attack in Nov/06, so I'm feeling my way through) A little background - Dad rebuilt the carburetor for me the summer before he passed, but when we put it on the car, she didn't want to stay running. So I bought a new carburetor and had the same problem - wouldn't stay running. So we set the choke open. Now when I start it, it starts, quits, start it, quits - several times until she finally just stays running. But if I have to come to a stop somewhere, sometimes it doesn't want to stay running. Here's the kicker - this car has done the same thing for as long as I've owned it - 1989. I remember in high school having to pull up to a light or stop sign and automatically pushing it into neutral to keep the gas going and the car running. I'm a little lost at this point - suggestions, thoughts, ideas??
Hello. If it's been doing that for the last 20 years with a couple of different carburetors on it, I would start looking at some of the more permanent stuff, like maybe a kink in the metal fuel line restricting the flow of fuel, or maybe the fuel pump has a weak spring in it. Hope that helps.
Hello. If it's been doing that for the last 20 years with a couple of different carburetors on it, I would start looking at some of the more permanent stuff, like maybe a kink in the metal fuel line restricting the flow of fuel, or maybe the fuel pump has a weak spring in it. Hope that helps.
We actually have checked the lines and the pump/filter, etc has been replaced...
Hi again. If you have had a couple of different carbs, all of the lines are unobstructed, the fuel pump is ok, the filter is ok, that only leaves one more place to check. It's all good from the gas tank to the intake manifold, so the problem might be inside the gas tank, as in a cloggeg up sock on the inlet tube of the sending unit, or possibly a chunk of crud partially obstructing the inlet tube. You would have to drain the gas tank and then remove the sending unit to check that. Good luck.
Hi again. If you have had a couple of different carbs, all of the lines are unobstructed, the fuel pump is ok, the filter is ok, that only leaves one more place to check. It's all good from the gas tank to the intake manifold, so the problem might be inside the gas tank, as in a cloggeg up sock on the inlet tube of the sending unit, or possibly a chunk of crud partially obstructing the inlet tube. You would have to drain the gas tank and then remove the sending unit to check that. Good luck.
Ok - I'm really NOT trying to be difficult. BUT....we had to replace the trunk floor and part of the frame rail, so we cleaned the tank up/out before putting it back in....
And we haven't seen you in a long time, where you been?
Yup - I've seen her replies before.
Been around, just really busy! Buying a house, working on my truck, getting ready for an MCA show our club is hosting in June, etc, etc. How the heck are ya?!
Hi again. I haven't forgotten about you. If you felt the need to clean out the gas tank, but didn't do anything to the sending unit, that would be my prime suspect. If you did replace the sending unit, or, at least, addressed the issue of crud clogging up the filter on the end of it, then the testing will get a little bit more involved. This really sounds like a fuel delivery problem to me. One thing that you could do, if you haven't already at some point in the past, is install an inline fuel filter that you can see through. Get the car started and stand there watching the filter. If, when the car gets around to stalling on you, notice if the fuel level in the filter started to drop a little an instant before the car stalled. If yes, you either have an obstruction of some sort in the fuel line or a bad fuel pump. If no, the problem is on the carburetor side of the fuel filter, if it is in fact a fuel delivery problem. When you got the new carb did that change anything slightly? Make things a little bit better, a little worse? If the float level was a little too low on the first carb and you got lucky and bought a carb that also had the float level a bit too low, that would account for what's happening, but, it probably wouldn't have been exactly the same amount too low. Something would have changed a little bit. Also, does the car seem to be doing fine in the normal operating range, as in between 1500 and 3000 RPMs?
(And, thank you, Denne. That is very sweet of you. )
Hi again. Also, if you go here The Care and Feeding of Ponies there is a brief description of how your carburetor does the magical things that it does, along with some pictures. Just type carburetor into the search thingy at the top of the page and the information will be about halfway down the page. Towards the end of it will be a general description of basic carburetor function. If you read through that, something might occur to you.
Hi again. Also, if you go here The Care and Feeding of Ponies there is a brief description of how your carburetor does the magical things that it does, along with some pictures. Just type carburetor into the search thingy at the top of the page and the information will be about halfway down the page. Towards the end of it will be a general description of basic carburetor function. If you read through that, something might occur to you.
You're awesome! Thanks so much for the time and detailed replies!! I'll check some of this out this week (I hope!!).
to completely eliminate the fuel line and tank issue. Take a 5 gall container or smaller of gas, get a small amount of fuel line. Take the fuel line off the intake side of the fuel pump and replace it with the new line and place into the 5 gall container.
Start the car and she if she runs off this tank. If YES then issue is prior to fuel pump. If no you fuel tank and lines are good. This is how I started my 66 4 yrs ago after sitting on jack stands for nearly 20 yrs.
1966 Mustang coupe - Starting for the season, tune-up and carb questions 
If it's been doing that for the last 20 years with a couple of different carburetors on it, I would start looking at some of the more permanent stuff, like maybe a kink in the metal fuel line restricting the flow of fuel, or maybe the fuel pump has a weak spring in it. Hope that helps.
If you felt the need to clean out the gas tank, but didn't do anything to the sending unit, that would be my prime suspect. If you did replace the sending unit, or, at least, addressed the issue of crud clogging up the filter on the end of it, then the testing will get a little bit more involved. This really sounds like a fuel delivery problem to me. One thing that you could do, if you haven't already at some point in the past, is install an inline fuel filter that you can see through. Get the car started and stand there watching the filter. If, when the car gets around to stalling on you, notice if the fuel level in the filter started to drop a little an instant before the car stalled. If yes, you either have an obstruction of some sort in the fuel line or a bad fuel pump. If no, the problem is on the carburetor side of the fuel filter, if it is in fact a fuel delivery problem. When you got the new carb did that change anything slightly? Make things a little bit better, a little worse? If the float level was a little too low on the first carb and you got lucky 
and bought a carb that also had the float level a bit too low, that would account for what's happening, but, it probably wouldn't have been exactly the same amount too low. Something would have changed a little bit. Also, does the car seem to be doing fine in the normal operating range, as in between 1500 and 3000 RPMs? 
