Car stalling - only when clutch is pushed in and engine is hot.
 

Last weekend was the first 'real' drives our car has been on since it was assembled. Previous to this I had only driven it around town.

I put roughly 100 miles on it over the weekend and it was roughly 90* outside, it also happened to be the hottest days I had driven the car.

I never saw steam, and the radiator is still full.

At the end of the 25 mile 1 way drives if I were to push in the clutch for a stop, or to take a turn the car would stall. It would also stall if I pushed in the clutch just to coast. It has never done this before. The sediment bowl is clear, the filter in the carburetor is clear.

The car would immediately restart, but not idle. If I was coasting and let out the clutch it would also immediately restart.

What should I look at to troubleshoot?

The entire ignition system and wiring is new in the last year.

Re: Car stalling - only when clutch is pushed in and engine is hot.
 

If you were going 45 and pushed in the clutch, what would happen?

Re: Car stalling - only when clutch is pushed in and engine is hot.
 

Not convinced it is truly clutch related, maybe coincidence with car rapidly slowing and having fuel slosh in carb bowl. May need to adjust float to get slightly higher fuel level. Possible that the clutch linkage is somehow rubbing/chafing on a wire somewhere, but that is less likely i would think

Re: Car stalling - only when clutch is pushed in and engine is hot.
 

The car would stall... that is what was happening. If I let it back out it would drag the tires and restart immediately.

Doesn't seem to do it when the engine is cold.

an IR thermometer on the radiator said that I am under 180* I was getting readings from 155-170 or so.

Re: Car stalling - only when clutch is pushed in and engine is hot.
 

Are the pedals rubbing on the battery cable and shorting out?

Re: Car stalling - only when clutch is pushed in and engine is hot.
 

Both pedals are clear of the cable, and no signs of rubbing.

Re: Car stalling - only when clutch is pushed in and engine is hot.
 

So, stopped and in neutral with both pedals out, the car idles just fine, but if you push in either pedal, the engine dies?:confused:

And this happens moving or stopped?:confused:

Re: Car stalling - only when clutch is pushed in and engine is hot.
 

carb trouble my guess

Re: Car stalling - only when clutch is pushed in and engine is hot.
 

1st part: Clutch pedal in and rolling - = dies (Only when engine hot)

after the engine is hot it does not want to idle.

2nd part: If the engine is warm it will die either way.


If I go start it right now it will sit and idle around 800rpm, the minute I rev it it will not want to idle anymore.

I cannot turn the idle below 800rpm.

I am thinking maybe something did get sicked into the carb...

Re: Car stalling - only when clutch is pushed in and engine is hot.
 

I would check for a vacumn leak , if it wont idle down .

Re: Car stalling - only when clutch is pushed in and engine is hot.
 

My thoughts as well. Inspect it very closely. I have bead blasted many pedals and it is amazing how many pedals I have found to have copper imbedded along the pedal shank where somewhere in history the pedal contacted the hot battery cable.

Tom Endy

Re: Car stalling - only when clutch is pushed in and engine is hot.
 

Vapor lock? Just a thought.

Re: Car stalling - only when clutch is pushed in and engine is hot.
 

I started there, while the carb only has about 500 miles on it it kind of seemed that way. I just opened it up and found some very fine silt in th ebottom of the carb bowl. It made it past both the screen in the tank, the sediment bowl, and the carb screen. There is quite a fair amount of it, so I will start there I guess.

I'm quite confident it is not rubbing electrical. I can press both pedals and as long as I keep the RPM's up it stays running, that and I can see that there is no contact.

Re: Car stalling - only when clutch is pushed in and engine is hot.
 

That was my first though, but the pedals kind of turned this into a mystery.:confused: If the pedals don't touch any wires, then I'm thinking vapor lock or carb problems,

Re: Car stalling - only when clutch is pushed in and engine is hot.
 

Tom, I was thinking when he said over 90* and I runs well when cold, then possible vapor lock. My beater did this twice last summer on 95* days. Disconnected the fuel line at the carb, let a little fuel run through., reconnected and it was fine for a while. No problems on an average temp day. Just my 2 cents.

Re: Car stalling - only when clutch is pushed in and engine is hot.
 

What does the ammeter do when you depress the clutch pedal when running??

You may have "sucked" some of that fine silt into the jet(s).
Paul in CT

Re: Car stalling - only when clutch is pushed in and engine is hot.
 

Hi 29,

That "quite a bit of very fine silt in the carburetor bowl" mentioned which is passing through two (2) filters does not sound like very great news to me -- sounds like silt in an 80+ year old gas tank that has never been thoroughly cleaned in quite some time.

Appears when you depress the clutch, the engine RPM's slow down & kills.

Also engine will not idle. Sounds like fuel starvation at low RPM's.

What kind of carburetor do you have?

Re: Car stalling - only when clutch is pushed in and engine is hot.
 

Do you have another carb to try or can you borrow one from another Model Aer? I would suspect carb but I am no expert-just a guy that learns the hard way.

Re: Car stalling - only when clutch is pushed in and engine is hot.
 

When I went back out to tinker it wouldn't idle cold anymore. It is the Holley/Zenith carb, I took it off and cleaned it up, I have not run it good and hot but it was idling again. cold and luke warm.

I took it for a drive around the block and it seemed to be acting like it used to, so I will take it for a longer drive when I go to lunch.

Re: Car stalling - only when clutch is pushed in and engine is hot.
 

Hi 29,

Reason for my former question as to:

What kind of carb? -- was that cast iron Zenith carbs are less likely to leak air at the main two (2) joints, I. e, at intake manifold & upper & lower carb halves, like that of Tillotstons & Marvels which are made with very soft pot metal subject to warping thereby causing air leaks.

In my humble opinion, from your replies thus far, my guess is that your main problem is a dirty gas tank -- period; e.g., the very fine wheat flour size dirt passes through your jets at high RPM, but do not travel through jets at low RPM's -- it just takes higher pressure & higher suction to move thicker liquids through small jet orifices.

Just went through a gas tank cleaning exercise or removing "all" large rust particles, the size of ice cream salt; "all" medium size rust particles, the size of regular salt, & "all" fine rust particles, the size of refined wheat flour; plus "all" particles of peeling gas tank sealer.

I found that the fine rust particles are the easiest to remove just by running about 4 gallons of gasoline through the tank about 2-3 times like this:

1. Go to Auto-Zone to get:

A. About 4 feet of black rubber hose, (trimmed later to proper length), to fit over your disconnected gas line at the carburetor.

B. A see through gas filter, ($4-$5 bucks max), with a folded accordion type paper filter inside that one can see within.

2. Go to Home Depot or Lowes to get a 5 gallon bucket.

3. Connect one end of new hose to gas line with new gas filter on opposite end placed over the new bucket.

4. First, drain tank & discard filthy gas; & next, fill tank with 4 gallons of fresh gas.

5. Drain tank through new hose & new filter into new bucket & repeat procedure 2-3 times.

6. Add same "filtered" fuel to tank, & live happily ever after.

7. Please Note: If you have large particles of rust, large particles of peeling tank sealer, or any other similar conditions with large deleterious particles, & you want your tank cleaned, one has to clean a tank in a different manner.

Hope this helps -- or you can clean fine particles from your carburetor bowl every now & then for the next year or so every time your car will not idle.