I've had my bobcat for about 4 or 5 years now, and it's the most reliable car I've owned. for the newbies, a quick rundown- bought it from my auto instructor in high school, some assembly required, battery not included. I've replaced the fuel tank, gauge pod (speedometer) brakes, wheels, and a few windows.
here's a problem it's giving me. it runs hot in the summertime, and takes a while to warm up in the winter. I start it, wait about a minute or two, put it in drive. shift to neutral, start it again, hold the throttle at around 1200 rpm. shift to neutral when i get to a stop sign or red light. tap the throttle when I take off. sometimes I have to pump it to keep it from stalling. runs fine when engine is warmed up.
is it an easy fix, or will it make me cuss and swear when I tackle it myself? any info would be appreciated
krazi
What year is it and what engine does it have?
High_Horse
it's a '77 with a 2.8 out of a mustang II. I've rebuilt the motorcraft 2150. the trans is a c-4, with an 8 inch rear. the trans will jump in and out of gear until it's warmed up.
krazi
I have the same problem with my '76......the issue causing mine is that the carb has mostly crapped out and i have not rebuilt it yet. It runs waaay too rich and makes it have a nasty idle, and a pain to get warmed up enough to idle at all. i shift to nuetral at traffic light otherwise it will lope itslef to death choking on gas.....then its flooded and i have to play the waiting game to restart it. this is the car that is getting 5.0ed so I am just trying to leave it alone and hope it keeps running until swap time.
Krazi....The trans is jumping in and out of gear cause it needs more fluid. Another little fun tip from me is to get rid of the choke. Either adjust it all the way open or surgically remove it but don't drop anything in the carb. I have owned more 2 bbl fords and I wouldn't hit a dog in the but with them darn chokes. Another tip it to check and see if your fuel float is saturated and is sinking lower in the bowl allowing the fuel level to rise. Those black sponge floats don't last forever. Another tip would be to check and see if your centrifical flyweight springs in the distributor are saggy. They are not supposed to begin to open till like 7 to 900 rpm. If they are saggy they will creap open while you are trying to set the timing and the timing will be off making a correct carb ajust impossible. Preist............Check that float....If your car tries to die when going around corners it is definitly the float is saturated. When you have the float out check and see if there is any debris in the float bowl....remove it. Set the new float level at about 2/3rds the depth of the bowl or a hair lower. There is nothing precision about setting float level.
High_Horse
thanks for all the help guys. I'll check the trans fluid before I leave in the morning. and with the carb, I've been thinking about swapping for a holley 2v carb. any tips or suggestions for the carb swap?
krazi
yes, stay away from the 500 holleys for this engine. Some swear by them, I swear at them. 380 cfm holley is ideal for this engine, but it would probably be cheaper to find a 350 cfm one. I prefer the earlier 2150 ford stuff. it is hard to find a good 35 year old carb though. I got lucky with the one i found, it hasn't been on a car in 25 years, no slop in the butterfly shaft at all. One good El-Cheapo rebuild kit and i have a flawless carb for my dirt tracker 2.8.
on the early carbs i have found a couple different sizes on the venturi bores. the one i found has larger butterflies than the one that was on my 76 390 from factory. I switched the jets from 55's to 58's and it smells just a hair rich, but runs perfect.
but i couldn't find the exact rebuild kit for this carb, though. I had to buy one kit for the gaskets, but i had to buy the accelerator pump seperately. and the gasket for where the lid sits on the float bowls, i couldn't find an exact match for so i had to break out the exacto knife and modify so my float would open up enough to let fuel in fast enough to keep up. also the lobe on the cam wears on these engines, causing loss of fuel flow volume. with this better flowing carb the stock mechanical pump wasn't enough to keep up with demand. had to go with electric pump.(I tried a brand new mechanical first)
My race car is retired, I might be willing to get off of this carb, but it wouldn't be for cheap. haven't seen another one with the bores that size, so it will be hard for me to part with it. In fact the guys buying my race cars were already told the carb dont go with. they are switching it to a 4cyl mini stock anyway so they wouldn't have a use for the motorcraft carb. well good luck.