So I've been trying to get my 83 back from the dead, and I've had a whole heap of troubles with it. I replaced all the filters and the fuel pump, and even did a carb rebuild/refresh (while I was at that I took some, but not all, of the emissions crap off the carb). I was getting some weird issues where there'd be absolutely no power going up hills (maybe a 2% grade going 45 in 3rd gear and the car was slowing down), so I assumed the secondaries weren't opening. I wired together the washers on the carb and disconnected the old secondary diaphragm and tried it out... same problem. I know the secondaries must be opening at least 3/4ish of the way because that's what they do when you press down on the gas while the car's off, at least once I got the mechanical secondaries thing in there.

There's also some annoying idle issues where it'll start at about 800 rpm then when you rev it up the idle will fall back down (after a long long time) to about 1200-1500. It also likes to start hunting after a bit and lose rpm then die without much warning. It gets to the point where you pretty much have to stare at the tach the whole time the car's running if you don't want it do just die randomly.

Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong here? It seems to me that the car's just not getting fuel while it's under load. Since I'm sure it's relevant the car did sit around for a good ten years or so without ever really even running before I got it.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

Vacuum leaks.