Poor Gas Mileage, Plus Other Misc. Carb Issues

[Joshua Stinnett]

Regarding the distributor, it may have a centrifugal (mechanical) advance mechanism internally in addition to the vacuum advance. It is not uncommon for the weights on centrifugal advances to get stuck. So just because you've checked that the vacuum advance is working does not necessarily mean the distributor is properly advancing. You can check the total amount of advance with a timing light.

Glad to hear it is already running better. Let us know what happens.

I checked the internal weights of the distributor when I replaced the points, so I know they're functional. I also followed the service manual procedure for the vacuum advance (or should I say retard) module and it checks out. The car definitely seems to have a more consistent idle, as well as more low-end tourque.the gas mileage has also improved quite a bit, so I feel like I'm making some sort of progress!

 

[kmead]

I would be tempted to put a more normal distributor onto the engine, it would likely improve things all around. Just a thought as the car is emissions exempt everywhere so reducing the NOx is not that big a deal