[smagnotti]

With that original timing chain and gear you probibly have loads of slop. To check it, remove all of your spark plugs, remove the distributor and the air cleaner so you can see the rotor from the front of the engine, then grab the balancer and by hand turn the crank back and forth as far as you can while viewing the distributor rotor and you will notice that the rotor lags far behind in movement( which it shouldn`t) when you change spin direction on the balancer! If this is the case I would not drive the car again but to get it to a repair shop, as these gears like to fully let go when you need the car the most!

[66Lemanster]

I will definitely check to see if there is any slack i the timing chain with your suggestions. Something else that started happening today is the A.I.R smog pump started making a grinding noise when the car is in park or sitting at idle, but once I accelerate the noise goes away. Not sure if this has anything to do with my current problem, just thought I would throw it out there. I did get a chance to pull the carb off this week, and other than some buildup and dirt it seemed fine. Put on the rebuild kit and and got it back on there with no real change in performance. I really do appreciate everyone's suggestions. I will continue systematically going through everything and see what I find.

[66Lemanster]

One update for anyone who is still following this thread. Although the shop I took my car to said there was no vacuum leak, I found one. I was trying to figure out why my idle was staying high even after the engine was warmed up, and I noticed a noise coming from the drivers side of the engine. After listening very carefully, I found a vacuum leak in the hose that goes to the brake booster. I'm assuming the shop didn't catch it because they used the port on the back of the carb who this line connects to. Either way, I finally decided to make the time and test everything myself. So tomorrow I am going to get a vacuum gauge and timing light and go through the entire engine myself. Pretty new to all of this but I should be able to isolate any vacuum leaks with suggestions in other threads. First thing is definitely fixing the connection to the brake booster. I did notice that putting my hand around the connection, stopping some of the leak, did allow the engine idle to come down and sound a lot better. Hopefully fixing it completely will solve some of my problems. I thank you all again for your suggestions. I guess I learned the hard way not to trust the shop, although I should of listened to Ghost in the first place. I will keep you all up to date with any progress.

[78 GHOST]

I'm glad you have found one of your issues, rough running older cars usually suffer from a combination of numerous factors. A few minor vacuum leaks, plugs a little cruddy, etc. Keep after the small things and you'll soon have a car that runs like a Singer sewing machine.

Personally, I would set about changing all the rubber hoses and belts on your car, including the radiator hoses, heater hoses, all vacuum lines, including the one on the bottom of the vacuum modulator line to the tranny. Some items like radiator hoses and belts will do nothing more than provide peace of mind, and keep the old ones as spares. Other items such as vacuum lines will improve performance.

Good luck and keep dialing it in, you'll be happy you're turning the wrenches. Also, don't sell yourself short, you're asking all the right questions. Finding the right areas to focus is the hardest part, doing the work is usually easy compared to finding where to focus.