Car won't stay on unless holding the gas down
After rebuilding the carburetor to fix a vehicle that would not go past 10mph, the engine loses its ability to idle on its own. The car immediately stalls out unless the driver constantly holds the gas pedal down to keep it running.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
Car won't stay on unless holding the gas down
- 1holding the gas down to keep the engine runningDid this help you?
- 2opening the idle mixture screws another turnDid this help you?
- 3restricting air flow over the carburetor air inlet to diagnose a vacuum leakDid this help you?
- 4Verifying the engine timing using an oscilloscope or bore scope before tearing the engine back down.Did this help you?
- 5Priming the fuel system by repeatedly turning the ignition on and off to clear potential air locks.Did this help you?
- 6Using a specialized timing kit and locking camshaft tools to hold everything at top dead center during the repair.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Just replaced the coolant pump on a 2017 automatic Ford taurus. This involved removing air intake, valve covers, harmonic balancer, timing cover, timing chain, and RH timing sprockets. Engine now sputtering and failing to start.”source ↗
“I painted the chain chain links at the dots on the sprockets, and realigned on install. Only think I can think of is the chain skipping a link while installing the timing tensioner. I am 90% confident that I checked alignment after tensioning, but that does leave 10% uncertainty.”source ↗
“So original problem was car wouldn’t go past 10mph. Rebuilt the carb now the car won’t stay on unless I’m holding the gas down.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 18Car won't start after replacing ECU and electronics failed
- 3Why does my leaf blower start for 3 seconds and die?
- 5Engine stalling after replacing mass air flow sensor
- 175Vehicle cranks after fuel pump replacement but won't start
- 2Gas pedal not working after wrong battery installation
- 2Engine RPM drops right after starting unless I give it gas