car stalls when first put in drive. dies on sharp turns. 2bbl 318 Gran Fury

SonOfaTomP

SonOfaTomP

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a recent issue I'm having. made worse by the weather fluctuating here. i diagnosed a vacuum leak which helped but still, when starting the car and first putting her in drive to drive off, almost always unless it is burning hot outside the car will stall. throw her in neutral, start, drive, we're fine. she'll also die on sharp turns when not at full op temp. hidden vacuum leak you think? i need new spark plugs? or should i get the carb retuned? i do have this mystery vacuum hose that doesn't seem to go anywhere that could be causing an issue. i just capped it for now. the vac leak in the second pic has been fixed. thx

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Fuel obstruction or float is out of adjustment in the carb if I had to take a guess. If there’s not enough or too much fuel in the carb that could be the choking while turning issue, but I’d make sure you have decent fuel delivery to the carb before you open it up.
 
First thing: properly plug the broken plug at the carb.

That's a 1A air leak.
 
Yeah the stalling in turns certainly points to fuel issue. Have you tried tying to choke open to see if it's the problem?
 
Stalling right after cold start, check the vacuum choke pull off adjustment. If it opens the choke too much, it can cause a stall when put in gear.

Stalling in turns, possibly float is too low or too high.

Couple possibilities to check anyway.
 
drove it today on what was a very hot day and all seems fine. idling in the cold used to not be an issue but recently she seems to idle very low. i used to let her warm up to the second notch on the heat gauge before taking off but this still gave me the stall when put in gear problem. i can try and mess with the screws on the carb. i haven't had to do this before and nothing should have gotten the carb out of tune as the only maintenance i've had done to the car is a speedometer cable and new rims
 
Still sounds like a fuel obstruction of some kind. A bad fuel pump or clogged filter could cause the low idle rpm and stalling.
Any chance you gotta timing light? Maybe autozone or somewhere has digital one you can use on the parking lot to Check idle speed and timing to get a baseline of where you’re at.
 
Not doing anything with the carb might be the problem. They do need to be rebuilt front time to time as parts wear out or dry up from age and gas. Especially the crap they sell these days.
It shouldn't need warm up at all once it's off fast idle.
 
If it's an older carb, try replacing the choke pull off and choke thermostat
 
That's the other thing- if the intake is carboned up or valve in the passenger side exhaust manifold isn't working right that could cause the choke to have issues.
 
its a cheap Ebay BBD put on like two years ago. it did at one point get gunked up when my charcoal canister died. that should have all been replaced by now and cleaned up, though my catalytic converter is a bit rattily but that is likely just down to the fact it fell down a while ago. it had a thing there it needed warm up even on hot days for a while though this went away after my lean burn was deleted. it mainly does this stall on put into drive when its cooler out, then again this is after a long warm up to the second notch on the temp gauge. sometimes fine, other not so much. its odd. lean burn deleted too. i think you're right. float is likely not set right or maybe a fuel additive to clean the jets perhaps
 
Stupid question, did you replace the choke thermostat when you replaced the carb? I think the holley style thermostat has a different length arm vs the carter style thermostat
 
AMC Diplomat said:
Stupid question, did you replace the choke thermostat when you replaced the carb? I think the holley style thermostat has a different length arm vs the carter style thermostat
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ngl, a mechanic did it, not myself :oops: that might be the root of the issue. pardon my ignorance on the matte, I'm probably one of the youngest people on this board. i take it this tells the car when to come off high idle?
 
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Do you know what year BBD you have or the numbers on it. Early in the emission years there were several TSB-s for exactly this and also some mopar kits to change the things needed to cure the issue.


Driveability Improvement Kit​


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In normal weather you should be able to press the throttle pretty soon after starting it and it should idle lower and be OK to drive. It'll take longer in winter.

Ignorev the stuff about the solenoids in that video. But the fast idle cam he points out is what holds the throttle for faster idle when its cold, the choke rod coming off the intake is what moves it.
 
I got my Aspen from winter storage last week. I started it up and left it running on fast idle for a couple of minutes. When I touched the throttle so it could settle down on normal idle like it usually does, it stalled right away. Started right up again, but the idle was slow and it died again after 3-4 minutes. After fully warmed up it did not stall anymore but the idle was rough and too slow.

Today I got the time to check the plug wires, vacuum lines and the other main suspects. Hooked up my timing light and vacuum gauge. The initial timing and idle mixture was spot on.
Then I noticed the float level was a bit low. Fortunately I have the sight glass on my carb for float level adjustment. Adjusted the level to the middle of the sight window and the mighty Magnum purred like a kitten again. I'm happy and ready for cruising tomorrow.

Not saying it have to be the float level causing your problems, but it's worth checking IMO. The issue with stalling in sharp turns also suggests that.
 
Proper float level is more important than some realize, and it doesn't have to be off very much, in either direction, to cause driveability concerns.
 
That's kind of why I like the Holleys with the externally adjustable floats and the sight glass or plug. Center hung float is really nice. TQ is a good carb too. My fave is a spread bore Holley on the factory manifold.
 
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