170 6 cylinder stalls on acceleration

Seth Swoboda

Well-known member
I friend of mine has a 63 falcon with a 170 6 cylinder. The engine stalls when you accelerate from a stop. It will stay running only if you accelerate very slowly from a stop. Running down the road it runs great. The only problem is acceleration from a stop. Any ideas what is causing this?
 
Remove the air cleaner, and look down inside the carb while holding the choke open. Open the throttle, and see if there is a squirt of fuel from a small nozzle down the throat. If not, the accelerator pump has dried up. Take the carb apart, if the pump is leather, work it with motor oil. Ifit is newer rubber, you will need to buy a rebuild kit.
 
if you take the carb apart make sure you don't lose the little check ball in the accelerator well under the accelerator pump
 
That might be a Holley 1904, an oddball. The accelerator pump circuit bits and pieces are wonky, if the builder isn't experienced with them he may have the wrong combination and not know it. they had at least 2 different length assemblies, not all rebuild kits accomodate them. It is in the shaft assembly where it exits the bowl area and makes contact with the bellcrank operator. Its tough to describe.
 
Have a 144 in my 60 falcon and have a lot of trouble with my carb . I keep one on the shelf and keep it rebuilt to swap when mine acts up . Don't know why with those small carbs if it's not the pump it's the float and needle acting up.
 
You might also want to make sure the distributor is functioning as it should. Everyone forgets that distributors need periodic attention as well. Also keep in mind, not all "rebuilds" are done well, so go over it again to make sure. ALL of the adjustments must be correct. And please don't tell us he bought an exchange rebuilt carb.
 
It sounds as others have said the accelerator pump. I could be wrong but I think those early 6's had a kind of weird loadomatic type distributor along with a spark control valve on carb. They worked fine when new but seemed to get kind of bad tempered when older like some of us do.
 
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