No power going uphill

poolnut

Member
No power going uphill


My model A runs good, except when i start up a hill It slows down real fast It loses all its power Any sugestions
 
Can you have an experienced Model A driver try it out, to make sure it's not in the normal range? 40 horses won't haul a sedan up much of a hill very quickly, especially if you've bogged down into that awkward zone around 30 mph, where it's too slow for third but too fast for second.

My apologies if YOU are an experienced driver and are sure you have a problem.

Steve
 
check points gab 020. if thats good check timing, my A will climb straight up, yes just 40hp but gear right pulls like hell. pulled Petite Jean Mountain straight up for 3 miles just kept watching the quails butt. good luck
 
Les Andrews lists 53 possible reasons in Model A Ford Troubleshooting & Diagnostics (the blue book). But I'd first look for weak spark caused by points/coil/condensor/wiring, and then partially clogged carburetor jets.
 
Check that the throttle fully opens when floorboarded. The arm on the firewall that pushes the throttle open was bent on my car. It ran just fine, but had no power when climbing a hill.
 
Poolnut, What do you know about your car? Does it have a standard or a high-speed rear end ratio? How many miles since the engine was rebuilt? What are the compression readings in each of your cylinders?
 
I had a similar problem a while ago. It turned out that the polarity on my coil was reversed.

On my other Model A I had a problem that my gas cap was not properly vented and when I needed more gas to the engine (like when going up a hill, it created a vacuum in the fuel tank causing a reduction in power. Foot off the gas and all seemed well. It turned out that the vent in the repro fuel cap I was using was mostly blocked by the oversized gasket that the previous owner had installed.

Fordially,
Brad in Maryland
 
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