I'm not sure what kind of acceleration to expect in my car, the rats nest is gone and it's got a racing beat exhaust system, not sure of how wide the pipes are, I haven't had a chance to check. But the acceleration seems slow. It seemed faster a couple days ago.

Also, when I'm in 4th gear, going under 55 there's a wierd noise, it's hard to explain but it feels like the engine is chugging just a bit, and the noise is kind of like a fast steady really low throbbing sound. It only happens in 4th gear.

 

Check your leading ignition, you may have lost it.

 

How do I check it?
I searched but there's a lof of threads with the words check, leading, ignitor/ignition in them some of them with just the word check :/.

I'm guessing if I had lost leading but still had trailing the car would start but it would be more difficult to start yes? Because it starts but it doesn't seem to like running until it gets above the second orange bar on the heat gauge. It idled fine and warmed up fine until I noticed the lack of power as well.

 

Test is simple, pull the plug wire of each leading plug, check for spark. If neither one has spark then you need to determine if the coil or the ignitor has failed.

 

How do I test for spark is what I meant.
It's probably something obvious but I honestly don't have a clue what to do. I've got a steep learning curve and as of right now I only have the factory service manual, which has nice diagrams but poor explanations for the technically challenged.

 

Pull the plug wire off of the spark plug and hold it either close to the plug or even next to the bolt for the strut, if there is spark, it will jump and you will be able to see it, Don't get shocked.

 

Ok, I'll check that as soon as I can.
Would this also cause rough warm up? Like I pull the choke, and it has a 50/50 chance of making a grinding noise when I turn the key,it only does this once maybe twice if it's really cold out.
After it's started, it doesn't stay steady, it rocks a bit and the needle doesn't stay steady. It won't move much but it fluctuates.

 

I wish I wasn't at work right now so I could test some things.

I just tried to start it and it wouldn't start immediately, it didn't grind at all, but it wouldn't turn over, it took a few times to get it started.

The gas pedal also feels odd, like I push it and it feels like it's scraping.

 

Does it grind when you are trying to start the car only? Could be the starter gear or flywheel teeth. Check to make sure the starter is bolted tight. Check the throttle cable and make sure it didn't pop out of the guide on the carb. Make sure there are no kinks in the cable.

 

Yeah it only grinds when trying to turn it over. The rough idle is also only when it's cold, but it's pretty rough.

 

How cold are you talking here?

 

check for sparks like mentioned above ^^^^^ then let us know. Need to start eliminating one issue at a time.

 

Cold as in outside temp was in the 40's this morning and it was about 53 when I started in 40min ago.

Which way is easier to see if there's spark if you have to do it on your own, take out a single plug and change the caps and turn it for each one, or take the caps off and put em near?

I've got plug cables that have a fairly long rubber head on it that covers a good portion of the plug so I'm guessing that removing one of the plugs would be easiest.

 

if you the ignition doesnt fix it. you may want to look into a vaccum leak issue. a small leak could act as you described

 

Ok, and I had read that on cars with as many miles as mine, 150k+ smoking during warm up isn't a huge problem, right?
It's not a lot, but it smokes for a few mins while it warms up but once I start driving it stops.

I'll test the ignitor after I get off work.

 

Check the Teeter Totter... Just had a thread about that in the last few days too.....

 

wth is the teeter totter?

And why can I not think of a better name than that for the thing I played on as a kid...

 

I tested and as far as I could tell they sparked.

How would I test for a vacuum leak?

 

get the engine running, and spray some sort of aresol around the base of the carb, and along the vaccum lines(starting fluid works best) and if the idle increases, this means you have a leak and wherever you were when it went up is where the leak is.

 

Do a search for "teeter totter" and you should come up with some photos. This refers to part of the linkage on the carb. If it falls into the wrong position, then it can make the pedal feel really weird and keep your secondaries from opening up...

 

Any way I could get a phone number to call one of you guys and get help in real time, it's hard to follow directions and stuff when I have to go back and forth between my car and computer.

Also, teeter totter is connected just fine, the picture helped a lot.

 

I'm getting high rpm for low speeds.
If I'm not in 4th gear by 40mph I'm up at 4000 to 5000rpm or so.

 

This is a royal pain :/. I can't find anyone in my area that could help me out in person with it, hopefully my friend can make it down to norman next weekend and check it out.

 

Sounds like your clutch is slipping. Was it running like that before or has it just recently started to act up that way? Smell anything burning when you're driving around?

 

It was fine when I got it, it started on friday I think.
There's usually a rich burning gas smell. And around the time it started acting up I started getting horrible gas mileage. In the past 2 or 3 days I used half a tank, but when I drove it 40 miles last sunday it got great mileage.