whenever it rains my carb runs very bad. It runs bad with the choke on and when the choke comes off it stalls. Also around 5-6000 rpm it sputters and will not rev up good. I recently took off all the rats nest, which made it idle a lot smoother on sunny days, but on rainy days the problem is still present. Sometimes I have to park my car somewhere and keep on revving it because once the choke is off it will stall.
What could be causing this, and what parts should I try changing from my parts car. (could water be getting in my gas line?)

Thanks.

 

Get a haynes manual and rebuild the carb.

 

Stupid newbie alert!!!!


What's a "Rats Nest" ???

 

Is this for real?

You need to do some serious diagoniosis from a true machanic and relay it to us so we can understand the problem.

By the way a rats nest finally being removed usually down plays your crediblity to what your asking here.

 

Bingo. The extra moisture in the air when it rains can really play havoc on old ingnition system components such as plug wires. I bet that's the problem.

 

I think whofarzed was pretty clear when he stated his problem.

Whofarzed, I would think it is a carb problem too, but revhead knows what he is talking about, so take a peek at the ignition. If I were you I would rebuild the carb anyway. It runs WAY better afterward. The rebuild kit is only like $20 - $30. Do Sterling's mechanical secondaries and accelerator pump modifications too. They are somewhere on the forum.

 

Totally an ignition problem.
Mine does the same thing, and I have my carb ship-shape, modded, and dialed in deliciously!
I figure it's the ignition, and when the condensate/ leaked in moister burns off...well that would coincide with when my engine suddenly feels good.
BTW, you should never be going down the road at that point.
Sit in the driveway for three (3) whole minutes @ no more than 3K RPM when heating up the engine.
If it is'nt purring like a kitty by then, well either you have a gargantiuan water fall seeping in, a monsoon hit the previous night (and starting your rex is the least of your worries), or there is ALSO a carb misadjustment helping to make your other problem even worse.

BTW, the mechanical secondaries write-up was inspired by REVHED. The AP Mod I submit as my own.
Both are a real kick in the pants!

 

...I mean you should do this as a matter of practice, everytime you cold start her.

 

thanks.
Do you think the distributer needs to be changed too? or just the spark plug wires?

 

i agree. it has to be electrical. otherwise put the top of your aircleaner and hood back on. then it will stop raining down your carb.

 

Have the same problem with mine except it only affects warm up. After that its fine. Run like **** then it just smooths out like nothing was wrong. Almost like some relay of valve opened. Always on damp days. I 'd say its in the carb. Since I replaced all electrical stuff. Local mechanic agrees just don't know the fix.

 

Problems in the rain = bad plug wires. 99.99999% of the time.

Carbs don't give a crap if it's raining or not...

 

LOL Nice to see you back here... so to speak. Where've you been anyway?

 

I agree, ignition. although carbs don't care if it's raining, they are sensitive to dampness in my experience. Both my rex and TA are carbed and both run crappy in damp conditions. I know for a fact that it's not ignition on the TA cause all the wires, dist rotor, and plugs were changed and it still ran bad in damp situations. But plug wires should get it to idle.

 

Maybe you should get it rebuilt. All I can tell you is that I had mine rebuilt and it runs excellent - rain or shine. It also ran fine before I had it rebuilt. Maybe I'm just lucky.

 

I've never seen a carb that runs equally well in all conditions. It can't, the settings don't adapt to changes like FI does since there's no computer to tell it to change. Agreed that they work pretty well but FI is far better.

 

True. It doesn't run exactly the same all the time, but I've never had it stall on me. However, instead of the computer, we have vacuum lines and sensors to control how the carb operates and how it meters fuel. Yipee!

 

FI is far better in terms of all-around driveability, I agree, bbuuutttt, in terms of pure horsepower, FI systems still have not beaten the trusty race carb set-up...BION....

 

Well had another rainy day so I popped the dist cap and checked for anything unusal that might cause it to run crappy. Everthing was dry no condensation . Put it back to gether and started it up. Sure enough about 4 mins into warm up it started to miss and just slowly die down in idle. Got under the hood and adjusted the choke cable to give me more rpm with the choke more open. Well it stayed running then just cleared right up and was fine. Next rainy day will tell for sure. Choke still comes off fine and didn't affect idle either.

 

I feel your pain, all winter sucked big time for me. it's not fun to have to hold the choke at stop signs so It won't die.
Mar3: That's what I meant, reliability. My TA is Carb and I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

Haven't you ever heard of flat-slide throttle bodies?

 

nope sure havn't

 

I want some......badly

 

I just changed my plug wires, dist cap and rotor so hopefully the next time it rains I will not have this problem. I do notice that it climbs alot faster to red line, so maybe my other plug wire were just too old.