ford 302 dies when i shift into gear...help

You have a timing issue. Question everything about what you know and make sure the mechanical advance is not stuck.

Some fords have the marks aligned at zero. Some have them aligned at the factory timing setting. Know what you have timing wise before taking the engine apart. It ran good before. The remark about slipped inertia rings is a good one but most SBF have real small balancer weights and aren't very prone to slip. You're more likely to have done something wrong in setting the timing

Good luck

 

Edelbrock carbs are goofy... They're more like vacuum primaries mechanical secondaries...

 

wanna see if its got a vac leak?get it to idle in park,barely cover the venturi of the carb ,or slightly spray some carb cleaner into the engine if the idle raises,you either have a:a lean condition in the carb(thread tape can get stuck inside the jets,or any foriegn object)or B:a vacuum leak.you can check for the vacuum leak at the intake by spraying carb cleaner at the sealing area arouind the ports or safer yet use a little benzomatic torch with a rubber hose connected to it (unlit of course ,just let the gas escape out of the hose).the idle speed will raise if its leaking.or it could be timing (cam or ignition) low vacuum represents poor timing and or lean condition(carb or vacuum leak)did you use the correct gaskets ?did you change the timing chain?***uming the cam is stock good idle vacuum should be 18-21 in.

 

I had the same problem recently with a 302 in a Bronco with a C-4. The engine ran fine, timing and carb were spot on, but as soon as you put it in gear the engine would die. I chased the problem for a few days, and it turned out to be a bad torque converter. So the first respnse to this post is probably right.

 

yes a bad torque converter will cause the engine to stall in gear,if its too tight ,but he says it was operating fine before he removed it and changed gaskets and such,and im ***uming (since im not there) that with 15 in of vacuum he has other issues.

 

well ill mess with the timing some more before i pull it apart, i really dont think its the torqe converter (atleast i hope its not)
im new on this message board and i really apreciate (i cant spell worth a ****) all the help
thanks
mat

 

OK if I missed thins one I'm am sorry . Did you remove the dist ?
Did you double check to see if the dist is set on #1 ?
Was the trans & convertor separated from the engine at anytime ? If it was , are you sure the converter was set back on the trans shaft all the way ? If not the converter will lock up and won't run right .

It has to be something you have done .
As for checking the intake seal if you don't have a benzo torch a spray bottle with water works too . It will bubble up at the leak .

GOOD LUCK !

 

is the carb new or used? was it on the motor before you pulled it. sounds like a carb issue to me. if its used, its sat with gas in it i bet!

 

Check the cam to see if you have a flat spot on the cam,happend to me on a 327 chev. Died everytime you would put it in gear but ran like a champ as long as it wasen't in gear. It was an intake lobe....

 

It's very hard for a torque converter to go bad and get tighter . Looser,yes.
About the only thing related is the stator sprag. If it slips, you won't have much stall speed or flash. Still, at a low idle, you probably would never notice that.
Other than that it would take a thrust bearing or washer to be totally wiped out and the turbine welding itself to the cover. Not likely. Very rare.

 

I'll be interested in seeing how this is solved. I am fighting the exact same thing in a 429/C-6 combo right now. The combo came out of a good running truck and the only thing i changed was the torque converter. I have to have the idle turned up so far that the truck will shift into second gear just idleing. I was under the gun to get the thing going when i put it together and used a really cheap ($53) re-manned converter. Right now the trans is out while I'm waiting for a new converter from Summit. I did all the things suggested here to solve it, timing, carb, vacuum, etc. with no effect on the stalling. Hopefully the converter fixes it, but I really needed a better one in there anyway.

 

It sounds like you have a stock motor and camshaft. Then it should work with a stock type and size converter.

 

Actually the motor has a mild cam, aluminum Edlebrock intake and edelbrock carb, I think it would be fine with a stock torque converter, if the converter was good. I paid $53 for the one in there, my bad, it's probably reman'd with spray paint. It was fine before I changed the converter, on advise from my trans guy......

 

Still an unusual situation for a converter to be too tight.
If you put some loose Saturday Night Special in there and it doesn't stall readily (the engine) , it still doesn't mean there's something wrong with the old converter. Could be that you just put a band- aid on the situation. Let us know how it works.

 

well i found the problem, i wasnt getting enough spark to the dist. i was only geting about 7 volts when i needed to byp*** my resister so i could get a full 12 volts,
thanks for all of your guys ideas and help, now i can get back to doing **** i reallly want to work on
mat

 

Happy to hear it's working better. Did you measure 7 volts to the dizzy or the coil?

 

MAN! None of us won the blue ribbon this time. I'll give honorable mention to the timing guys .

 

Out of curiosity what kind of distributor, ignition setup do you have?

 

what your saying sounds more like a lose timimg chain then anything, or one that has the wrong setting. one way or the other the motor will give you what you haveing a problem with ,Idel ok but when loaded it ****s out.

 

i got that number off of the coil

its just a procomp dist (its my daily driver so i just orderd it off of ebay to get her running till i can afford some thing better) and well thats all i know about that
now i have to figure out where the damm resister is so im off to the back yard to hopefully finish it up
mat

 

Most Fords don't actually have a "resistor", they have a resistance wire (least all of mine have, Model A excluded)... Big pink ******* running all the way back to the key. Just gotta byp*** it.

 

So it's driving OK now? Sounds fishy. Is the ProComp HEI style or traditional with seperate coil? It just seems odd that the car would idle fine and die when it goes in gear becasue of low voltage. Keep the info coming

 

Since i posted to this with the same type of problem I will follow up. I was thinking my torque converter was causing my stalling; and it did turn out to be the problem. I replaced the cheapy "remanned" converter for a TCI. It still stalled at first, but a softer stall, not the instant stall with the old converter. A couple turns on the mixture screws and a tiny bump in timing and it's all good! I am able to set the idle where it belongs, not revving like I had to have it with the cheap converter. I know the only reason i had to play with the carb and timing is because i had messed with them trying to solve the problem with the bad converter. I had tried all kinds of settings and nothing helped at all. Also the new converter makes a huge difference in performance, the truck snaps your head back unless you're very carefull with the throttle leaving from a stop!!!