When I go to start the car in the morning, I pump the gas about 4 times then turn it over. It starts up just nice, kicks onto high idle then about 4 seconds later it just dies out. Any ideas???

 

sounds like a fuel delivery problem, as in your run the bowls dry and die. how much cranking to get it going again after that ? any fuel leaks down around the pump? sounds like it might be a fuel pump diaphragm going south and allowing the "prime" to bleed back downstream. This is all asumming that you have a mechanical pump, I have no experience with the earlier cars so I could be wrong.

 

It only takes like 2 pumps on the gas and then it turns over and stays running. There doesn't appear to be any leaking from around the fuel pump. And by earlier do you mean where the fuel pump is in the front of the vehicle?

 

You shouldn't have to pump the gas more then one single time to cold start the car. 0 times for a hot start. All you *should* be doing is engaging the fast idle cam.

What happens if you hold the pedal to the floor while cranking it? Starts up without pumping? That could mean your float bowls are leaking, and it's flooded the motor.

Stock quadrajet?

I'd say your choke pulloff adjustment is setup wrong, and or your choke thermostat as well. This will basically let the car start, then it closes the choke blades and suffocates the motor.

Get somebody to cold start the car, when you're watching it, see what happens. I think it needs a full rebuild either way.

 

Yes it's a stock quadrajet I have adjusted the choke pull-off so that it cracks the butterflys about 1/8-1/4". I just drilled out the thermostat the other day and adjusted it so that the tang is parallel to the ground. When i hold the pedal down from cold start it keeps cranking and doesn't fire up right away.

Just incase i did adjust the choke pull-off wrong what is the correct way to adjust it??
Also i just noticed that there is a small kink in the fuel hose coming up to the carb. It's not a full kink just squashed down a bit right where it turns to go into the carb. jw if this is normal or not.

 

not normal to be squashed, but I doubt it's bad enough to cause this. How bad is it?

choke pulloff, with the motor cold, get somebody to cold start it, and watch how much the choke air valve closes. 1/8" is about right. There's an angle measurement spec, but I don't use that.

Your thermostat, that basically controls how cold it has to be to get the choke to kick on, and how hot (or how long) before it'll kick off.

how about your fast idle screw? the correct speed? 1500RPM or so?

 

well when i went to take a look at the fuel filter, i kinked it even more but it was almost kinked fully at the bottom. The idle is set right at about 1500. By choke air valve closes you mean how much the butterfly opens i assume??

 

fuel filter should be in the carb. We're talking about the line at that area? Might be something to change out then.


technically, the butterflies are what you see what you look at the carb from the underside, round discs that rotate on the throttle shaft. The things that close on the top, are the choke air valve (front, smaller one), and secondary air valve.

I'm gonna take a few and think about why you would have to pump the gas many times to start the car. First thought is "rebuild the carb", and is probably the best idea in the end...

 

Well i cut out the kinked piece of hose and replaced it. That didn't seem to fix it. When I go to start it it almost seems as though it isn't getting the gas it needs to keep going. it only does it when it's stone cold though otherwise the rest of the day it's fine and starts with no problems.

 

if you need to pump the gas lots to start it, when it's cold, chances are your well plugs are leaking.

if it doesn't need to be pumped, but when it first cold starts, it shuts right back off, then it's choke adjustment stuff. thermostat (turned the right amount), choke pulloff, and fast idle speed.

 

I don't think the wells are leaking. I did notice that when it starts cold and dies the choke air valve seems to be open quite a bit. Is it just the screw on the choke that controls this? Also when i drilled out the thermostat i had to sort of file down the "key" so that more tension could be added.

Well either way if you could tell me how to adjust it properly right from scratch that would be good too and I'll see if that works.

it also seems to smoke a bit on hot days when it's idling jw if that's normal or not.

 

if it opens too far, that shouldn't be much of a problem, if it opens all the way, it'd be like you have no choke, and you're holding your foot on the gas for a 1500RPM idle. Shouldn't stall the car.
If it doesn't open enough, that's what would cause it to stall, usually.


if you have the t-stat too much tension, it'd just stay on choke for too long. Shouldn't stop the car from starting though.

I haven't given you any really good ideas here, sorry. But I have to go out for dinner now
Somebody else should have some ideas???

 

so i had 1/4 of a tank of gas left and when i went to adjust the idle nothing happened really and it was running rough. i took it to the gas station, and filled up with gas. now it isn't running as rough and the idle is higher. i'm starting to think that my fuel pump might be no good.

I also bought a can of wynns and cleaned the sucker out with it but this isn't the first time the strange gas phenomena has happened lol.