Losing power on hills

Problem solved! It was the fuel pump push rod.

I drove past my house at full throttle and the engine sputtered, so I killed the engine, put the car in neutral and coasted into the garage. I took the top off the carb, and sure enough, the bowl was empty, right down to the top of the jets, so it was definitely fuel starvation. I measured the fuel flow out of the pump, and it was pitiful. It had been fine before…. So I replaced the rubber intake hose, cleaned out the pump, checked all the valves and diaphragm and gaskets, and made everything nice and tight. Nothing helped. I found some early-ford posting that said to check the length of the pushrod (which was within spec) and if you are not getting enough pump throw, to put a leather disk on top of the pushrod as a shim. That worked! I can now accelerate up the hill at 50mph that had me down to 10mph previously. It is very satisfying to solve a problem like this, thanks for all the suggestions.
 
An option for future reference to make troubleshooting easier is a fuel pressure gauge. You can get kits for troubleshooting or permanently leave in place. You put a T in the rubber line section.
 
The rich condition of the plugs could also be high fuel pressure. Suggest checking want 2 on your vacuum/pressure gauge. The correct original main jets for the 91-99 =0.50"
also check the heat range of the plugs. The original plugs were Champion H-10.
 
I built an engine with used parts and it had a mechanical fuel pump with a hand primer. On the first startup it ran when hand primed and then wouldn't continue running. I found I had to lengthen the push rod to make it run continuously. So your fix of adding a spacer to effectively lengthen the push rod is no surprise at all to me. Well done on making an effective fix.
Mart.
 
Now it goes up hills, but doesn’t hot start. I drove it out to a celebratory lunch yesterday (lobster rolls and ice cream, what could be better?) and after the car heat-soaked in the parking lot, it wouldn’t restart. The pump wouldn’t prime and I had to refill the carb bowl by hand. That was enough to start the engine and then the pump primed and ran just fine.
 
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