I rebuilt my Holley 1920 a few months back due to a problem with bucking, sputtering and stalling. The rebuild fixed the problem except for one thing. I can start the car cold ('72 Duster) and drive it with no problems, but if I stop somewhere for a short time and then restart, I will almost always stall when taking off from the first stop. I very carefully set the float level, and adjusted the choke. My car will also start out at fast idle and then drop to curb idle on it's own without my touching the gas. Sometimes if I just let it idle, it will just stall out without any chugging or smoke. One morning, I started the car and it died every time that I tried to pull out of the driveway until I finally got it to go. This carb has about 45,000 miles on it, but was just rebuilt. Should I just get a remanufactured carb? Is there another adjustment that I can do?

Joel

Try changing your main metering jet to a #63.

Reed

I had what sounds like the exact same problem your having. The car would run fine until it warmed up and I stopped. It would stall out every time. I had to rev it in neutral, put it in gear and hope it wouldn't shut off. Once it got going it would run fine till I stopped again. Put on a new fuel pump and I can stab it from an idle when warm and it doesn't die. I also had rebuilt the carb with no success before the fuel pump installation.

Cecil

I already put a new fuel pump on the car. I also installed new plugs, wires, points, distributor cap, and rotor. Where can I get a #63 metering jet for a Holley 1920??

Joel

I think they are the same as the performance Holley carbs. So any speed shop or high perf mail order carrys them. 63s are small, this is about the size the center carb used that came with on six pack cars. Holley jets go up to 100 for gas carbs. Another thing to look at is the accelerator pump shot. Look down the carb and work the throttle. The pump shot should look stong, if not there may be blockage. If it is strong, adjust the linkage to the closest hole to the pivot point. This gives the pump piston a longer stroke. The only other thing to give more pump shot is to drill out the discharge port. Letter type drill bits are reqired to do this, the carb has to be dis-assembled and it's a little tricky as the drill bit is real small and the passage is long. If the carb is not you problem, maybe it's in the ignition. Such as the mechanical advance not working, or not enough initial advance or vaccum advance hooked up to the wrong port. Try giving the dist more advance and see if that helps, if it does you'll know where to trouble shoot from there. I know this is a frustrating problem as I went through it.

Cecil

I had a similar problem with my Valiant when I first got it.

I had put on a remanufactured carb.

Check to see that you are getting enough fuel to the carb. I put one of those clear fuel filters on. After I did that I noticed I wasn't getting alot of fuel.

Changed the fuel pump and huge difference in fuel delivery.
(I know you already change the pump). Maybe you have a blockage in the line.

The other thing that really helped me out was running a higher grade gas. I'm a real cheapskate so I was using 87 Octane. I didn't realize how rough the engine was actually running until I put in a tank of premium gas. Another thing you will want to do is adjust the mixture. I had some big improvements when I did this. I was stalling on turns. I think it was running too rich.

Good luck,

John

Check and replace if necessary all the rubber fuel lines (at fuel pump and at the tank). I had a similar problem, except mine would spit and sputter at highway speeds. After it finally left me stranded and I had it towed, it turned out to be a 50 cent piece of rubber hose at the tank. OUCH!
The short piece of hose from the tank to the main line was full of holes (dry rot) and would draw air into the fuel system and lean out the carb.
I would also suggest installing a clear glass fuel filter to verify at least visually that the fuel delivery system is functioning properly.