[Guest]

a couple days ago I took a drive from porlant to olympia (about 100 miles) on the way home it seemed that the engine was starting to miss occasionally at higher speeds ... the spedometer also seemed to be bouncing a little. the following day the miss progressed down into lower and lower speeds and now the car is pretty much undrivable it Idles faily well still though. I was wondering what things to look into ... I have not replaced anything yet. it did seem like there was a bit of noise coming from the rotor and one of the plug wires where it connects to the cap (the metal part) was all coroded the rotor looks a little worn but not too bad. I'm pretty new at this so .... well ... what should I do/look for??

BTW its a 289 w/ an automatic transmision and a POS 2 barrel carb ... and I have an exhaust leak at the manifold which I plan to fix asap.

 

[midpack]

sounds like a tune up is in order to start with,
plugs, points, condenser, rotor, cap, wires

 

[Guest]

thats where I had planned to start ... it just came on so quickly that I wanted to see if anyone thought there were any bigger problems that I should at least check into.

 

[66CoupeNW]

Hey, welcome to the best damn Mustang hangout on the net! What part of Washington are you from? There's a bunch of us VMF regulars up here.

I'd look into your ignition system first. If you haven't had a complete tune-up lately, you should go ahead and re-do everything rather than trying to narrow down one faulty component. I'm talking new plugs, plug wires, rotor, dist cap, points, condenser. Then set your timing and point gap correctly, then make sure your vacuum advance is working correctly. Once this is all done, I'm guessing she'll purr like a kitten.

If this is all new to you, maybe there's a fellow VMFer up here who could give you a hand. If you're up here in the north end, let me know, maybe I can lend a hand.

... oops, just reread your post. Sounds like you're in Portland, a little far for me!

 

[Guest]

thanks for the welcome ... I'm actually in portland, a buddy of mine was moving to oly.

a couple questions what is the condenser, and vauum advance

I believe I have a bit of a vacuum leak but I have no Idea how/where to find/stop it

also any clue what the corrosion would mean it's pretty bad ... I'm surprised this didn't start alot sooner but it's just the one connection that has it

 

[midpack]

the condenser is the little barrel shaped thing next to the pionts under the cap. the vacuum advance is the thing on the side of the dizzy with a hose to the carb i believe

 

[1966conv]

If the corrosion is on plug wire; you could possiby be not getting a spark or poor spark. If no spark, you're obviously only firing on 7 cylinders or 6 or 5 depending how bad and how many there is corrosion on.
For a vacuum leak, buy a spray can of carb cleaner and starting at the base of the carb work your way around all gasketed(?) edges. If there is a leak you should hear it in the way the engine runs as the cleaner is pulled in the leak; it will be like adding fuel. 1st thing though, get the tuneup done so you're only fighting 1 problem at a time.

 

[Guest]

thanks guys youve been a big help