Gee, no one smarter than me has answered this yet? Well, I'll give it a shot. 1. Replace plugs, points and condenser, fuel filter (check for one in the carb inlet), etc. When was the last time you replaced your plug wires? They go bad too. If ONE is oil soaked, brittle, or cracked, replace them all. 2. Set plug gap, point gap, if you have a mechanical cam, set the valves. The above is obviously basic tune up ****, but a lot of times, a guy will start trying to diagnose drivability problems without checking the basics, and as cheap as most of that stuff is, its silly not to change it before chasing a problem. Example: My dad has a '96 Impala that developed an intermittent miss after about a year. Still under warranty, he took it to the dealer, who kept it for a week, ran all kinds of tests, replaced the computer, etc. They couldn't find the problem, and gave it back. My dad took it home, and decided to check things out for himself. The first thing he did was pull the plugs. On the third plug he pulled, he noticed the porcelain was cracked, replaced the plug, and the problem went away. Okay, on to the tuning. Start with the timing. Set idle speed to about 1500 rpm. Unhook and plug the vacuum advance if you have it. Hook up your vacuum gauge (manifold vacuum), and adjust the dizzy until you see 18 in. vacuum. If you got a big honkin cam and can't get 18 in. go for maximum vacuum. Reset your idle speed, hook up your vacuum advance, and we're onto the carb. You didn't mention what carb you are running, so I'll be very general. Adjust the float level, if you haven't already done so. Then, with engine off. Run your idle mixture screw (or screws) in until it seats. Now back it out 2 complete turns. This will be our baseline. Start the car, and turn the screw in 1/2 turn, and see what happens to the vacuum. a. If it goes up, screw the idle in another 1/4 turn. b. If it goes down, back the screw out a full turn. If the vac*** picks up this time, then go out another 1/4 turn. The idea is to achieve the hightest possible idle vacuum. If you have more than one idle mixture screw, you need to adjust both screws equally. Your car won't run any better if you try to adjust the idle screws to separate settings. If you get lost on your settings, or if you don't notice any change in your vacuum readings, go back to your baseline adjustment. Once you get to the point where another 1/4 turn makes the vacuum drop, back up, and try 1/8 turn at a time. When you achieve highest idle vacuum, readjust your idle speed, and adjust the mixture screw(s) again. If your car is an automatic, drop the car into gear, and make sure it idles in gear. Now take the car for a test drive. If it pings, back the timing off a couple degrees. If it surges, try going slightly richer, or slightly leaner on the mixture screws. At this point your tune up should be pretty decent. If the car still runs like ****, you have other problems. Now everyone will chime in, disagreeing with everything I just said.
nah gold if it wasnt night time here id go out and check my tune right now! timing lights are over rated since they took all the lead out of the petrol and i am amazed how many balancers "walk "so the mark is inaccurate cheers
I don't mean to insult but "still not running right" just is not enough information to hazzard a guess as to where to look. What does that mean? I don't know about you but I hate wild goose chases. Without more information on how it's not running right you will just be chasing your tail. Ambiguous questions like yours wont get the responses of a detailed explanation of what's happening with your car. Again don't take it personal... just help the many guys that would like to help if they knew what was happening.
Ideling rough in gear. Flat spots while accelerating slowly and hard. Just know there is more potential there, can hear and feel it.
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