Im having carburetor problems???
 

I don't know that much about cars, so if you can help, please make it understandable to me.

I have a 1976 Dodge Dart 2-door hardtop (special edition)
I know it has a holly carburetor and it has been giving me problems for quite some time now. The car currently will not run unless i am pressing on the gas, the second i let go, the car dies. Now, i can barely keep the car running even with gas. I have been told that the Holly isn't a good carb. but the Carter? was.

If anyone can tell me what kind of rebuild kit i need for the Holly, that would be great.
Or, if anyone can tell me if the Carter is better, and where i might be able to get one, that would be good to.

I am a college student so this is my form of transportation, so i need to get it fixed quick. Any help would be appreciated. Again, i don't know much about the specifics of cars, so dumb it down as much as you can for me.
Thank you.

Sounds to me like you have a vacuum leak. Check all your hoses that go into the carb, the hose from the pcv valve (comes out of your valve cover and goes into your air filter), and the hoses that go into the intake in the "christmas tree" looking thing with all the hoses. Did you switch the carbs, is there a gasket between the carb and the intake? Will the engine stay at idle if you just turn it on? If not, checking the hoses by spraying wd-40 or a carb cleaner will need two people, one to keep the car running, the second to spray the hoses and listen for a change in RPMs.

Forgot to mention, Welcome to the forums.

holley's can be hard to tune. It does sound like a vaccum leak to me. Inspect all of your hoses.

Carter cards are basically the same as edelbrock carbs. same design and easy to work. You can get some with a small CFM but you may be better off having your's rebuilt or replace it with a reman unit.

welcome to the forum.

like 78 says you need to be on your toes with a holly but once you get it tuned its an ok carb but im with everyone else on the vaccume leak

Well almost all the spellings I have seen, and the correct one is "VACUUM". Yes, I sell Vacuum cleaners for a living, and Vacuum is correct.:):):)

And again X3 I concur, a leak.

what about idle set too low? thats the funny thing about carbs either you love holley or hate them. both are good carbs as long as you know what your doing. i think edelbrock/carter seem to be easier to work with.

Any update green machine?

hey c4c i think you scared him away with the spelling thingy hehehehe and yes you are correct don't know what got into me :D

Another one leaves after the first post.

Ya, and they never come back to check out the answers

aaaaaaaaa thats ok even though they are one post wonderers it still gives us a chance to talk about it if we get into the same situations , my club always has things to say about them but in my book hopfully they will at least return some day and say hi again :D :) :o

hopefully:D

i have checked almost all the hoses leading in and out of the carb, but still nothing yet. I'm going to try fooling with the idle, and see what that does, but other wise i haven't been able to find a leak.

A vacuum leak is pretty much un-metered air getting into the engine, so you also should check the carb gasket and the intake gasket, there could be leaks there.

Hey Glad ya' came back Green and forgot to ask but did you change out your fuel filter ????? no gas means no power and i would take some carb cleaner and spray into your carb if its blackish looking while its running around 1500rpm's k and go from there its either gas / air / or timing issue and could be also plugs and wires ,,,, so much but you have to start some wheres and id go with the filter and clean your carb and adjust the fuel level on the holly and set the idle screws

i did replace the fuel filter and still no change. The hardest thing about it right now is that i can't even keep it running. It turns on possibly the first time, but then it does not want to turn back on again. i believe i am going to get new spark plugs for it when i get the chance. Thanks for the input again, and it seem you all think its a vaccum leak so i will keep checking the hoses.

What kind of choke is on it, there could be an issue with that if you can't get it restarted.

have you checked the fuel pump to make sure its pushing fuel to the carb, try and squirt some starting fluid in the carb while some one is turning it over and once it starts (if it does) keep squirting little at a time to see if it stays running

X2, I was going to say the same thing. You can also just remove the fuel line to make sure that you are getting fuel from your tank and to see if the pump is working properly.

a bad EGR valve can cause a leak too.

I didn't think there was Exhaust gas recirculation in '76?

73 was the first year.

Have you got it going yet green ????

I can get the car started up about once a day, but i cannot keep it running. Even when i pump the gas, the car will begin to die around the 30 second mark. I am soon going to purchase a rebuild kit, and i believe i have checked all the vacuums and i did not find a leak, but i will try checking again.

are you sure that you are getting fuel to and through your carb? Have you tried to spray starter fluid down the carb as it is running to see if you can keep it running? Are you getting enough fuel to the carb?

I know you said that you changed the fuel filter, but sometimes people put two in, also I would inspect the lines to see maybe there is a bottleneck somewhere. Do you have suction in the fuel pump?

make sure you installed the filter in the right direction. Trust me when I say it does matter. Don't ask me how I know. :rolleyes:

Tighten all screws on the top of carb itself. They were notorious for coming loose and allowing too much air into the system.

MM

Iam just throwing this out there, hows the timing ?