hey guys, well i have a 78 with a 350 and i believe a t-10 4spd, or so i was told by my friend's dad while i was changing the clutch. however before we changed the clutch, when you would hammer down the gas, it felt like it kicked into a passing gear or something, it would start to go, then hit a sweet spot and you would sink into the seat and it would wind up then u shift, and the same thing in every gear but 4th. well since we did the clutch change it doesnt do it very much anymore, the timing is a little off and the carb could use an adjustment, i just dont have a timing light and my tach wire broke so until i get these things im screwed for making it perfect, the timing sounds a little too advanced but retarding it doesnt make much of a difference when your new at this stuff like i am lol. could someone tell me the reason why it did go into this "passing gear" or speed up a ton or whatever you want to call it and why it doesnt do it now? or at least give some reasons why it wouldnt do it now? thank you everyone!

 

Manual trans is direct drive and it's always in the gear you put it in, no "passing gear". What was changed with the clutch? Did you replace the flywheel too? If you did, is the new flywheel heavier than the old one? A heavier flywheel robs h.p. and will make your engine not spin up the rpm's as quickly. Or, maybe your old clutch was slipping a little and allowing the engine's rpm's to get up to it's own "sweet spot" where torque was higher, then the clutch would grab?

 

yeah i didnt think they had a passing gear, bc i always thought passing gear was just..down shifting lol, and it is a bigger flywheel, it was originally the 10 inch but i couldnt find a ten inch flywheel AND clutch to get there within the day so i upgraded to the 11 inch for both, and the odd thing is that it did it again yesterday, but only seems to do it when i fool around with the timing or something, i just lost my job and i have one lined up for Feb. but im looking for one sooner, but i wont have a timing light until then so i just fool around with it for now. and the old clutch may have been slipping bc the one side was pretty worn down and the flywheel/Pressure plate was very smooth. but like i said, it did it did it the other day lol. oh and it only seems to do it once the car is warmed up.

 

could be in the carb or distibutor. if the secondaries are not kicking in when there supposed to it could do what u are saying and if the advance is not working or sticking that would do it to. should put u back in the seat from the get go.

 

well when i rebuilt the carb alot of the floats were pretty worn and the dashpot is shot to hell, not to mention i think the back butterfly is sticking and only the front smaller 2 are opening up, im also having a little choke problems but they normally work themselves out, i think its just a 32 year old carb being a 32 ye old carb lol i lost my job and had planned on getting an Edelbrock 4bbl, think that is alot of my problem? and the distributor is going to be replaced bc i picked up an mds 6AL with blaster coil, i just need a different cap and all that jazz with a seperate coil thats not built in and i was just gunna change the whole system to work better with the MSD

 

the back butterflies are the secondaries. if they are sicking the car will hold back until they open then wam wow the fuel hits it and away u go.

 

Alrighty then, you want to make sure your choke is opening up fully and the linkage is working correctly. There is a lockout pawl on the choke linkage that completely prevents the secondaries from opening up until the choke opens up. It's there to prevent you from lead-footing the engine when it's cold. If your choke isn't working right, your secondaries are more than likely being held closed. There may be a rare instance where the linkage clears, then the secondaries can open, giving you your "passing gear" effect. If that part of the linkage is a problem, you can remove it. I'm sure you're smart enough not to bury the gas pedal on a cold engine!

 

its a brand new choke on the carb, i just think some of the linkage is a little screwy, this is my first Carb car since im only 19 lol, and the choke seems to be open sometimes and closed others (both at around 30 degrees out with at least 12 hours of no start up) i try to close it to the right length but it seems to get really tight or too lose sometimes lol i will one day get a new carb. but thank you guys alot! im going to check all of the linkages tomorrow, try to figure out what is holding everything up.

 

one more question, in the summer, due to a failing thermostat and water pump, i put in a bigger 6 blade fan, now that its winter, would the smaller 4 blade fan that came with the car be a better idea to put on? it seems to have made a big difference with the overheating problem in summer (it doesnt have any fan shroud) could the bigger fan be causing my choke not to open all the way too? or would it not make any difference since it's ontop of the engine and right next to the heat source?

 

The choke opens up based on engine temperature. As long as the engine is getting up to normal running temp, then the fan won't matter.