Loosing Power in Drive

[silimond]

Please Advise

The other day I was just drving along in my 1972 240Z, and I the car started loosing power and eventually died. I towed the car home and changed the fuel filter and adjusted the idle. Took the car back out. Ran good for awhile ....then started loosing power and eventually died. The car started right back up and idleed strong in park, however, when put in drive it died. Any suggestions.

[beandip]

are you running a electric pump or just the mechanical pump? Have you been working on the engine previously to this ? How about the filters at the inlet of the carbs. ? Could also be the coil heating up and failing , but it think first fuel.

[silimond]

I am running the mechanical pump. What puzzles me is that the car will run just fine in park. Matter of fact...I started the car up and drove around the neighborhood for about five minutes. Everything was fine. I am thinking after a long period of drive is when I have the problem with the car loosing power in drive..ultimately killing the engine. I am thinking of changing the points and rotor...maybe something is fouled...don't know.

[Victor Laury]

This sounds exactly like my expirence with the crudded up gas tank. the rust flakes would gather around the gas pickup tube and the car would lose power, then die. The filter would catch some particles, but not enought to clog the filter. After resting the car for a couple minutes, the gas would back flow, pushing the flakes away from the pickup and I could drive off for anouther 5 minutes. What a freaking hassle.

I resolved my problem by pulling the tank and taking it to the Gas Tank Renu shop.

[Zedrally]

Had same problem in 2 cars, one was a dirty tank [240], the other was capacitor in distributor [260]......take your pick!

[beandip]

Often when you are having this sort of trouble is because the engine at idle is using little fuel. When you increse load and RPM you also increase the need for a greater amnt. of fuel , if the filter or filters are restricted then the engine starves. As was mentioned by others , the coil or capacider could be failing when the engine warms up . I f y ou are still running points, the condenser is the silver cilinder looking thing inside the dist, and it has one wire coming out of the end (like a fire cracker) , cheep to replace and should be every time the points are changed. Are you sure the fuel pump is working properly ? Along this line pull the dipstick and smell the oil and see if has a gas smell or looks thiner than it should. Mechanical fuel pumps can dump fuel into the engine when they fail. They work by the flexing of a rubber diaphram that pumps the fuel , if or when the rubber fails then the fuel can squirt into the timing chain area of the engine , not good. If you are running a electric pump by the tank , check to see if there is a filter in the line before and or after the pump. It will be right next to the tank by the right rear wheel. Good luck with this . Gary:classic: