Hi there. My name's Brandon. I have a 1977 Mustang II Ghia. Automatic with the original 302 engine. Motorcraft 2150 carb(Previously a California car. I bought a 1977 Motorcraft 2700 VV Emissions carb D7ZE GD.) 118k miles. I've been taking my car to a mechanic in my town for a while. I live in Indiana. However, we cannot figure out why the car just dies when giving it the gas. The carburetor was leaking, and we repaired that. New accelator pump. However, now the car will not run, and it smells not like oil, or gas. Not even coolant. My mechanic is too busy to be messing with my car, so here I am.
The car, when it ran, used to start hard if I've been driving it for a bit. I think the car was running rich, but it has never flooded out on me before. When I got the car back, it wouldn't even stay running. Just fires, and dies. I was driving it, and it backfired after I drove it after starting it for the third time after it died the previous times, and then, it died again. Wouldn't start. Just turned over. Let it sit, and it would fire, but die.
I know nothing about repairing cars. The car used to drive fine, and never choked out till recently, and when I got it back, it just won't even run at all. It's always idled high, but the engine has never knocked, or rattled. I have no mechanics who can help me here, and the car never had major issues. Just rusty. Rustang II. I just think it's kinda pathetic that I can't have a normal daily driver.
Sorry for the story. Lol.
Cars of that vintage tend to have miles of vacuum hoses that deteriorate as well as lots of vacuum-operated emission-control gadgets that can fail in various ways. California-spec cars are even worse. Many of today's mechanics have never worked on anything like that where they can't plug in a scanner to pull up codes to at least give them some kind of direction. An educated guess would be you have a vacuum leak, or possibly the EGR valve is ducting too much exhaust gas into the intake causing a cutout when you hit the gas. Also a weak fuel pump or blockage in the fuel system or exhaust (plugged catalytic converter?) would also cause problems. Since there are no computers the fault needs to be traced by purely mechanical means.
@chucktobias
Thanks for the info. I'll check for some vacuum hose leaks. Also, have no idea what, or where an EGR valve is. I have some books on the car, I'll take a look! The catalytic converter isn't on the car anymore. Was gone before I bought it. Perhaps they took some of the California regulation stuff off. Not sure. I have never seen another V8 cali emission Mustang II.
@chucktobias
I checked the EGR valve today. Someone has put a screw inside the vacuum port on the EGR valve. No hose. Someone just blocked it off with a screw.
That is probably only the start of the butchery done to that poor car over the decades.
@chucktobias
Yeah, unfortunately. I'm sure it's missing a few other things before I got it about 5+ years ago. Not sure where to even begin, or if I should even hook the EGR up.
The 1970s emission controls really sapped performance and gas mileage, and became increasingly difficult to service as time went by. A lot of the emissions equipment was poorly designed. There is a right way and a wrong way to remove that stuff. Most "mechanics" did it the wrong way (like just shoving a screw into the EGR valve).
What you might want to do is get a baseline look at the engine's overall condition by doing a compression test and a leakdown test. If you have leaky valves or worn rings that engine will never run properly until those conditions are corrected. Then you can start looking at the fuel, emissions, and ignition systems with some confidence it can be made to run properly when those things are sorted out.
So which is it, the conventional 2 barrel carburetor or the Variable Venturi Carburetor that is on the vehicle now?
If I'm reading correctly when cranking the engine it starts, but quits running when you turn release the key. Am I correct? On the Fords with the aluminum ignition module there was a red wire and white wire. One of those wires was hot in the crank mode and the other wire was hot in the run mode. Sounds like you have power on the crank mode wire but not the run mode wire. So, what you are going to do is take your test light and find out which wire has power in the crank mode. The other wire should power your test light in the run mode.
So, if you have power coming from the ignition switch on both the crank and run wires, but not the ignition module, replace the ignition module.
Rich running on the 2150 2 barrel Motocraft carburetors was usually caused by a bad power valve. Rich running on the 2700 VV carbs was caused by a stuck cold enrichment rod, or egged out holes in the mixture jets. Poor performance was usually a bad slide diaphragm assembly. The black Teflon coating on the slides quite often wore off increasing drag on the slides and poor performance. Engine vacuum was crucial to the proper function of this carburetor. As the engine wore with mileage the carburetors tended to function poorly. The quick fix foe these problems was to replace the VV carburetor with a 2100 or 215 Motocraft 2 barrel carburetor.
@bc-st
Thanks. The car tries to fire, but now, it won't even stay running, or at this point, won't even run. Has a bad smell when trying to crank, and if it runs. It was running when I turned it over the other day, but if you gave it the gas, instantly choked out. Never smelled before, or had an issue. I'll look into this. I don't know much about repairing cars, but I'll check my books for the ignition module. It has the 2150 on it. I just, recently, bought the original 2700 VV on eBay. Thanks again for the help, and information!
Hi, everyone! I've replaced the ignition coil, and the car starts up, but is getting too much gas, so it dies after a few moments. I tried the whole screwdriver with butterfly door thing. Didn't help. Car is intaking too much gas.
I removed the carburetor today, and the thermal choke control line is rusted, and broken? I have pictures. Car has been running fine like that for years. Guess I'm preparing a full Motorcraft 2150 rebuild, and have no idea what I'm doing. So, this should be fun.
They're not too bad to rebuild, searching for "Motorcraft 2150 rebuild" will yield lots of how-to videos and tips on doing the job.