No throttle response

R

Rustyscrap

Junior Member
On a recent drive, my stock '31 pickup (zenith carb, mallory distributor) ran great and then stalled 20 feet from my driveway (on a very steep hill). I disconnected the fuel line at the carb and there was no fuel. I went thru the fuel path and didn't find any blockage, but changing an aftermarket inline filter seemed to restore full fuel flow. Went for another test drive and it ran great, but noticed it didn't have quite the usual pep on that steep hill. Made it into my garage this time, but now the engine has no response to throttle. It will start and idle poorly, but will not rev up. I've checked fuel flow, carb blockage, throttle linkage...nothing amiss. This is driving me crazy and threatening my 74 year love affair with Model A's.
 
These ol' Girls keep you on your toes, don't they.

How much gas do you have in the tank? Going up your steep driveway, could you have starved it for gas?

Other than that, All I can suggest is start checking items one at a time, points, condenser, timing, coil, dirt in carb. You know the drill...

BTW, is your handle "Rusty Scrap" or Rusty's Crap". All depends on punctuation... :rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
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If you have new ignition points, the plastic rubbing block has probably worn down, closing the point gap. This can happen in less than 50 miles, as I learned. Once the block becomes heat-hardened, it won't wear down any further. Be sure to use distributor cam lube on the cam occasionally. It's a moving part (at high speeds!), so it needs to be lubed.
Did you polish the distributor cam prior to use? I think that was my Waterloo recently.
Marshall
 
Check the ignition as Marshall said, but this sounds like a fuel problem to me. I will bet that some dirt got into the carburetor. You will have to split it in two and blow air through all the jets. Use some carburetor spray cleaner too.
 
Sometimes the inline filters need pressure to flow fuel. I have found the inline filters to be a trouble spot. I have went to the fuel filters that fit in the glass sediment bulbs. This is no help for the cast iron sediment bulbs.
 
It started out as rusty scrap, but I might change it to Rusty's crap. This is driving me crazy. I put an old Tillotson carb on and it ran the same, for all the world like the throttle linkage has been disconnect, which it ain't.
 
Are some mice living in the muffler?

An old high school trick was to jam a potato in the tail pipe of someone's car. Old meaning 1950's.
 
Rustyscrap said:
It started out as rusty scrap, but I might change it to Rusty's crap. This is driving me crazy. I put an old Tillotson carb on and it ran the same, for all the world like the throttle linkage has been disconnect, which it ain't.
Click to expand...

You switched carbs with no improvement. If you have good gas flow to the carb, it's time to start looking somewhere else. Start with checking the points and timing.
 
Do you have a old rubber fuel line with a inline filter? If so replace all of it. The gas we have causes the hose to deterate and shrink the inside of the hose reducing flow.
Remember...Henry used a steal line with no filter in the line for a reason.
 
same problem with mates 30 sedan yesterday, would not pull a maggot off a pork chop, huge flat spot,this on a previously great running car,
Turned out to be the gasket between the carb base and body(B carb) was really loose on the ventury, allowing it to run up the s--t, made a new gasket and its back to its usual self
something you would not normally think.
Lawrie
 
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