throughout my owning of my 74 valiant I have been having problems with a loss of power coming off of a stop. It seems that when I took it to get fixed they just replaced the floats in the carb. I will soon be upgrading to a super six, and will also be looking for some dutra duels, if anyone can help. another problem I have been having is one of my turn signals has periodically been not blinking, just staying on. This happens at random.
Please help me, I have gotten really excited about this car and am trying to really make this thing something to be proud of, the only drawback is that I know absolutely nothing about cars,but am willing to learn. Thanks again-Bryan Cincinnati

The turn signal can either be a burned out bulb, a bad connection/socket, or a bad flasher. The flasher is under the dash (fuse block?). When it fails next time, get out and walk around the car looking at all the bulbs to see if they're working. If they're all good, it's the flasher. Of course you could always pre-empt this by replacing the flasher now (It's only like $10 for a cheap thermal one).

"Loss of power when coming off of a stop" isn't a great description. Tell us more. Is it small hesitating or does it almost stall? Does it "bog"? Is it running rough? Does it run fine at idle? How does it run once it's up to speed or if you accelerate from say 35 to 55?

The hesitation could be a bunch of stuff: timing, vac advance, osa valve(?), egr(?), sticking float, bad accelerator pump, trash in carb, lean mixture or even a vacuum leak. (?--I'm not sure a '74 valiant has these). If you don't have a service manual then I'd suggest you get one. Check the timing, just to be sure it's right. Check the operation of the centrifugal and vacuum advances. Make sure you've got a clean fuel and air filter. Test drive to confirm it's still happening... Then I'd plug all the vacuum lines then test driving it and see if the problem goes away. If it does, you can reconnect them one at a time until you find the root cause. If you don't see any improvement with the vacuum lines disconnected, you've probably got a carb problem.

Sounds like you're about to change carbs. That'll either fix the problem or create new ones. Don't let that discourage you -- the super six is definitely an improvement. That's just unfortunately how things work.

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My truck is a Frankenstein creation
Built from the dead carcasses of others
And brought BACK TO LIFE!

Just because all of the turn signal indicator lights are on and not flashing, does not mean the flasher is bad. Check out this previous post of mine for an explanation

http://www.slantsix.org/forum/viewtopic ... sher#42845

The car starts fine and comes to a nice curb idle, I pull out and begin to press on the gas with some stuttering(bogging??) and it seems that if I release just a bit it will excel, then I press down and it will bog. If I keep babying the gas like this for a few seconds I get a little frustrated and press down good and hard and the car will very slowly excelerate, very sloppy. It just doesn't have that "punch" that I am looking for.
When I turn corners, usually going uphill, the car seems to stahl or stutter just like a quick exceleration,( quick is not a literal term)
I hope this is what you guys were needing to help me , I will look at my flasher and probably purchase a new one just to make sure.
thanks again

The hesitation sounds like the accelerator pump(inside the carb)and possibly maladjusted floats.Find a more mature mechanic(read-one trained on carbs,before electronics took over) and it is quite possible that your carb is just plain worn out,but seeing that your gonna go to the super six setup ,you dont need to worry about the current carb.
These old slants are relatively simple and most any one who can read can learn fix one(my 13 year old daughter knows the firing order and can put the plug wires on even if there is none on the car----her next lesson is valve adjustment).
I suggest you find a factory service manual as they are much better than the Haynes,Chiltons manuals are pretty good also.
HyperValiant

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1960 Hyper-Pac Valiant(rolling test-bed)
1963 Valiant V2OO(Son's summer project,- he just turned 15 )
1972 Valiant 4dr(Daughter Kelly's repair in progress)
1974 Valiant (v8) daughter Kelly's work in progress

Pierre is right and I wasn't completely clear on the point: it could just be a bad connection. since the flasher is cheap, I usually replace it before I go looking at all the plugs & sockets. It is possible, however, that the lights are all working and the flasher is good; but you get no flash. This is because one or more bulb sockets or connectors somewhere is corroded and not allowing enough current to flow to heat up the element inside the flasher...

I tend to replace flashers in my personal cars with the more expensive electronic kind, that don't care how much current is being drawn...

as for the hesitation.... most likely it's the carb.

_________________
My truck is a Frankenstein creation
Built from the dead carcasses of others
And brought BACK TO LIFE!

I was just about to mention that... bimetallic strip flashers are never worth buying. I buy the HD-12 flasher for the turn signals. They will flash regardless of how many lights are working. I went one step further and went with a used solid state flasher from a bus.
The accelerator pump will not cause the engine to continuously bog at wide open throttle. I would verify you are getting proper distributor advance first. It's possible your vacuum advance diaphragm is torn, or there is no vacuum signal going to it. Your ignition coil could also be hooked up backwards, your spark plugs could be worn out, anything resulting in a weak spark would cause a marked drop in performance when vacuum drops.

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I've been calling it as i see it for my entire life and that's not about to change. Take it or leave it.