I have own a few cars with the Ford "small" sixes in them - the first one was a 61 falcon 2dr. The six was replaced with a 289. I had a 62 Falcon SW, a 1964 Studebaker Commander and two Mavericks - all with 144,170,200 or 250 Ford sixes in them. I had to get it down. If my car didn't run right nobody would let me work on theirs.
exactly the same expierence i had i had gotten used to the rough idle and the car shaking a little when i was stopped at the light. i figured the thing's 30 years old its not going to be "smooth" right anyway i put a HW5200 progressive 2bbl 350 cfm carb on with an adapter plate, which sounds like the same swap rando did. it idles sooooooooo smooth and quiet now its like the car's not even running not to mention quicker pick up, better top end power, and no economic scrafice under normal driving conditions since its progressive. it uses all the stock linkage so aside from the plate, the carb, a few bolts and a new air cleaner your good to go.
I would almost bet that you a have a vac. leak somewhere.......cup your hand over the carbs air intake. If it continues to idle......you have a massive vac. leak somewhere. As for the fuel delivery problem.....put 3 deuces on it
I have solved some rough idle problems with Pertronix PNX-1261.Just add the rest of the Pertronix line up as you go, plug wires,cap,rotor and coil.If you do the swap, just put the point and condensor in a baggie and kept it in your your car, incase the Pertronix ever fails. I also use a good re-built distrbutor to install the Pertronix in, just in case your vacum advance or point plate is worn. Let look at the carb, Step one, call holley carb and replace you old crab with there 350cfm 2 barrel. Do you want to kept the I6 or go to a V8 later? Lets don't spend your hard earned money on something you can live with until the day you drop the bad boy V8 in. If your going to kept the I6, there is some really good stuff out there for it. Lost in the 60's Tony
Pertronix I second the comments about upgrading to the Pertronix unit. It will clean up the idle, performance, and economy better than anything I know of. It's clear to me why the OEM gave up on points about '75. Key to the success is the use of the Pertronix or other manufacturer's 40K+ volt coil. BTW, gap your plugs at .050 after you install the ignitor and coil.
on a '76 stallion there already is a factory electronic ignigtion set up. replacing it with a pertronix piece wont really make much diffrence since he doesnt have the old points setup anyway.
Hey, lost track of the fact we were talking about a '76! The Pertronix is minor improvement over the Duraspark, except for doing away with the box. Do check out the coil. Sometimes they will cause a poor idle but run fine at cruise.
Update.... I found another guy to look at the car. He's a mechanic at a Ford dealership, and he owns a 1980 Ford Fairmont with the same engine. He was under the hood for about 20 minutes tops. What the major problem was, a vacuum hose was switched around with another one. As soon as he flipped the hose, it settled down to a nice purr. He did re-adjust the idle speed and mixture, but other than that, it was good to go. He lived around 30 minutes from where I was at, so the car was very warm, plus it was a very hot day when he adjusted the idle. The last couple of days it's been cooler (and I started the car after it's been setting), I think the idle speed is a little low. I'll pull the instructions and I'm sure I can find the right screw to increase it a touch. Beyond that, I think it's all set. Thanks again to everyone who offered their advice, I appreciate it!! Art
