Hi folks. I have a question for you guys. I'll be quick in background and get to the point.

1. Bought a great old grandpa car. 1079 Chrysler Lebaron. Rare and unique factory 4 speed trans! Pretty much a luxury Dodge diplomat lol.

2. Car sluggish on acceleration when bought. Idled fine though, just sluggish with foot on gas. Figured siting, bad gas, ethanol gas, whatever. Long story short decided to do a rebuild on carb. Took apart and cleaned it. Replaced everything. Adjusted floats and put everything back to where it was before. Saw a vacuum line a little dry rotted. Replaced it.

3. Car will not idle anymore. If you spray carb cleaner or starting fluid down carb to get it going, you can keep it running with foot on gas, and it is running better in terms of sluggishness gone. But if you take foot off gas it will die. Then you can't restart without pouring gas down carb/ starting fluid. Then repeat. I didn't change anything other than putting new parts in and it idled just fine before rebuild. Haven't had this much issue before with rebuilding carb. Also replaced fuel filter just for good measure. Any thoughts?

Help is appreciated. Thanks!
 

Im assuming you have the 1945 holly 1 barrel. Go back and check your set screw for your choke and fuel to air ratio that happen to me when I rebuilt mine I had to tune it back cause I adjusted to the float back to where it's supposed to be and make sure all the vacuum hoses are were there suppose to be as well if there not right it will choke off the motor hope this helps

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Slant six equipped Lebarons all came with the Super Six package. That means you have a Carter BBD.

The symptoms you describe sound like a vacuum leak or misadjust idle speed. Did you match the new gaskets with the old ones? You may have a passage in the carb body unsealed creating a vacuum leak.

Also, you may have a misadjusted or malfunctioning choke and/or fast idle linkage. Does the car refuse to start only when cold or does it refuse to start when hot or cold?

It will start when cold very easily, yes. Once it warms up when it begins its descend to idle, it begins to run rough then finally dies.

I suspect a vacuum leak and/or a too-slow curb idle speed. Do you have a vacuum gauge? If so, can you tell us the vacuum reading at idle? What is your idle speed currently set to?

Did you take it totally apart... pulled the idle mix screws, jets, etc... out of the body, cleaned, then blew all the passages in the throttle plate assembly and throttle body with compressed air?

If not... you may have some sediment or gunk lodged in a passage that could cause this, also did you reset the floats with the cardboard tool, and reset all the screws (idle, mix, etc...)to the recommended setting?

Are you sure the carb is
staying full of fuel as it runs, fuel pressure? Good chance the tank has
crap in it, could be covering the pick-up as it runs, then no fuel.
I've seen that multiple times. Fine rust & sediment in the tank falls off
after it sits awhile, then once running(w/a return system esp.)&/or fuel
sloshing it stirs back up & covers the pick-up choking the pump.

Thanks guys for all the help. Well I fixed my problem--it was throttle gasket and it had a vacuum leak. I inadvertently put it back together with the gasket off two of the holes. Lining it up with all the linkages it must've shifted on me. So now it idles nicely.

HOWEVER, my original problem is still there, the problem of why I rebuilt the carb in the first place. When taking off, it will bog down for a split second, and then take off. It happens in every gear. I'm not even saying 'floor it', but just a steady good acceleration as you would normally drive. Do you think it would be a timing issue at this point? Or throttle related? I replaced the throttle cup when I rebuilt it, and it looks way better than the one that was in there before. I had hoped it would fix the problem. Car runs good at idle, and runs good under load after it does its split-second bog down.

Are check ball and weight installed, and moving freely?

Did you blow air and/or carb cleaner through from the check ball hole into the accelerator pump cylinder bore?

Every problem I have ever had (until very recently) with any of the 1945s that have been in my van had been with the accelerator pump--especially the check ball, and emulsified goop in that passage.

Well I tried the timing route, as a mechanic friend of mine suggested to give it a few degrees more and see what happens. I took it for a ride and it did improve. Not sure if that's a mask for a different problem or not. It still hesitates but very little. When stepping on gas, it's like it 'cuts out' for a split second. The only thing I did to the accelerator pump was change the blue plunger at the end. The old one looked kind of beat up, so was hoping that was the problem. I didn't take the accelerator pump apart further than that. Do you still think it's accelerator pump/carb related?

Have you verified the setting of the metering rods?

No I haven't. Just a quick aside, this car is incredibly clean. I imagine much of this problem is from sitting? It has 40,000 miles on it and is from Colorado. No rust anywhere. Carb was fairly clean inside when I took it apart.

Can you explain the setting of metering rods?

Short answer:



Better more complete answer is to read the carburetor rebuild and adjustment mauals available for free HERE You have a Carter BBD, so get the info for that carb.