Engine Dies When Placed In Gear

[OneOfMany]

Could it be transmission low reverse band related? Seem to remember causing that problem by having the band too tight.

 

[boboh1]

I got the car delivered and started to repair and replace what was worn and it needed the carburetor rebuilt since it was a leaking mess so could not tell personally how it was beforehand. The previous owner said the transmission was rebuilt in 2018 has had not had many miles put on it since.

 

[Geoff 2]

The recessed mixture screws on the Carter AVS was not one of Carter's better ideas...done to stop fiddling & defeat emissions.

With engine wear over time/miles, engine vacuum can change, requiring tweaking of the mixture screws......when you can get at them!

The 383 came with the 625 AVS, which has the smaller 1 7/16" pri t/bores. Also used on the 340s. Some had external mixture screws, easy to adjust. I would try & get one of these...OR....take your carb to a carb shop & see if the can remove the buried screws & fit externally adjustable ones.

 

[Orig69]

Basically the 1968 Carter AVS carb came with one mixture screw and 1969 and later carbs came with two mixture screws.

 

[oldbee]

The 2 lower screws- do they still have plugs covering the holes. If so, probably never removed; if no plugs covering them then adjust them also.

 

[boboh1]

The lower base screws do have the caps removed and I can barely see the slot of a screw head deep in there. I wrote the carburetor rebuild shop how they set those and still waiting for their response. I’ll have to adjust those with a very small screwdriver.

 

[Orig69]

The lower base screws do have the caps removed and I can barely see the slot of a screw head deep in there. I wrote the carburetor rebuild shop how they set those and still waiting for their response. I’ll have to adjust those with a very small screwdriver.

Those plugs are usually plugging up holes that do not have any threads.

 

[Wietse]

The factory spec of 650rpm idle is in Park or in gear?
Sounds a little too low for Park idle, when putting it in gear the engine gets a load and would drop a little, so i would try and set it first to 750-800 rpm, doesn't hurt to try.
Instead of adjusting the idle screw, try first by advancing the timing a little and observe if the rpm increases.
If the rpms go up by advancing the timing you could get to 750-800 by just that and leave the idle screw as it is.
Next would be fueling, fatten the mixture up a little.

 

[boboh1]

The 650 is in neutral so I will try to bump it up just a bit. Here is one of those mixture adjustment screws buried.

 

[Geoff 2]

Bob,
Here is what I would do [ & have done ].
Remove carb. The screws are brass [ with a slotted head ] in an alum body, so corrosion may have occurred. Spray WD40 into the screw holes. Also spray from the other end: spray into the T slots & let the fluid run down into the screw threads. Do it 2-3 times over a few hrs/days. You need a screwdriver that fits perfectly. Trying to undo a slot-head screw that is tight tends to spread the screw head & make it even tighter.....If it doesn't want to move, try screwing it IN first.
Dribble some auto trans fluid onto the threads & leave overnight. Warm up alum with a heat gun. Hopefully the high expansion rate of alum along with the above measures will allow the screws to come out.
They can be replaced with external screws from an AVS or Thermoquad, same thread.

 

[boboh1]

Thank you for that information. I will give it a shot and get some external type screws too.

 

[1KoolBee]

Torque converter locked up?

 

[boboh1]

Hope not. When I had the car delivered it drove from the street into the garage so hope the trans is ok. Was rebuilt in 2018 I was told.

 

[Shorty Thompson]

Engine seems to idle fine but as soon as I put it into drive or reverse the engine immediately stops running. Any ideas what I can check?

Every time I've heard or ran into a situation like this , it's been a bad torque converter.

 

[boboh1]

Still trying to mess with this. When I reved the engine to about 1000rpm and held the accelerator pedal at that point, and while applying the brake it idled good while in gear. As soon as I slowly released the accelerator, the engine died again. I have been messing with those mixture screws without any positive results.

 

[boboh1]

I set the curb idle at 900 and it went into gear and idled ok. At the 650 spec it stalls.

 

[Orig69]

The 650 is in neutral so I will try to bump it up just a bit. Here is one of those mixture adjustment screws buried.

View attachment 1674414

Was this insulator included in the carburetor rebuild kit?

 

[boboh1]

No. They only included one regular gasket. A spacer like the one in the picture was on the original set up so I put it back on.

 

[Geoff 2]

Is it possible that a bigger cam has been put in the engine? That would explain the high idle speed. Check & report on the vacuum at idle.

 

[Wietse]

Still trying to mess with this. When I reved the engine to about 1000rpm and held the accelerator pedal at that point, and while applying the brake it idled good while in gear. As soon as I slowly released the accelerator, the engine died again. I have been messing with those mixture screws without any positive results.

Does the carb have a choke plate installed?
If the engine is cold and it can drive would indicate it can run on a rich mixture.
You need to get those mixture screws going first so you can do some adjusting on it, it could be running very lean once warm.