Hey everyone! So I've had my car in storage for about 2 years (I refuse to get rid of it.), and I finally have it back with me after all this time. I had to charge the battery completely at an Autozone and it took me who-knows-how-many-dozen tries to get the car completely started and warmed up.

So, as I was driving the car I had a constantly re-occurring issue. I was driving the car just find after it warmed up, but once I hit the highway things got ugly. The car would intermittently die at higher speeds (around 50-60mph). It happened several times on the highway before I decided to get off the highway and go the long way home so I wouldn't feel so at-risk. Off the highway, the problem persisted at lower speeds, constantly making the car go dead, having to restart the car, the car drives fine for a mile or so and then dies again.

This was about a week or two ago. Today I decided to start taking a look at it to see if I could tell what was wrong. Now, when I start the car with the choke activated, it'll start up/warm up as normal for approximately 20 seconds, then it will sputter and slowly rev down until it dies. It does this every time.

My fuel gauge is also magically broken after the car has been in storage for a while.

I already did a search for this problem AND I read the results for those threads. The difference here is, I had my car in storage for a while so I feel it might change what is wrong with the car. At first I thought maybe I forgot to Seafoam the tank and maybe the gas is bad? After reading some threads the foremost guess seems to be a vacuum leak. This is all bizarre to me considering the car has sat and done nothing for so long.

Thanks for any and all advice. I can't wait to start restoring this car.

 

Sounds like a fuel delivery problem. I would start by checking the fuel filter or better, just replace it after all that storage time.

If that doesn't fix it check the fuel delivery to the carb, there is a simple procedure for doing this in the FSM (basically detach the delivery hose at the carb, stick it in a 1 gallon milk jug and be sure you are getting the specified delivery per minute).

If that looks good the carb would be the next suspect.

 

What Ray just said.

 

If your factory fuel pump sat with modern gas in it, it's bad. Same goes for the carb. Rebuild the carb, replace the fuel pump.

Also, cleaning the fuel tank and blowing out the fuel lines isn't a bad idea either.

 

If you do "rebuild the carb" you must leave the OEM needles and seats alone. The base plate gasket doesn't work right either because it is too thin.

 

Thank you very much, gentlemen. I've always loved the helpfulness of this forum, thanks for being so quick! My current living area isn't the most convenient for car work, but I'm going to try some of your suggestions within the next week or so and I'll get back and let you know what the verdict is. Thanks again.