Car shuts off when put in drive

I’m writing this from work, because I wanted to report the car’s behavior on the way here this morning (26 miles). Even though it did not shut off when put in gear, I noticed that after the car warmed up, and at one of my 6 traffic light stops, the engine still tends to miss intermittently and “load up” while I sit still. When I take off, the car stumbles slightly, and then takes off quickly, almost like its ‘swallowing’ the last mouthful of gas and then catching its breath.


At lunch time, I did a little web research on recommended fuel pressures for these carbs, and the majority of cases say that these Edelbrock 1400 series need to have low pressure to operate efficiently (around 2 to 3.5 psi), or they will suffer similar symptoms. Mine was set at 4.5, so I dropped it to 3, and I’ll see what it does on the ride home this afternoon.

I also re-checked the idle circuit adjustment screws on the front, and found that the screws were not at the prescribed 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 turns out (the way they should be after getting the “stumble” when turned all the way in during adjustment); after I re-adjusted these, the idle smoothed noticeably and picked up a bit.

Again, I’ll see what happens on the way home; the trip back is more of a critical test, because I’ll be in stop-and-go, rush-hour traffic, and that’s usually when the damn thing gives me a fit.

Rob