{Chrysler 300} Re: troubleshooting advice for my Hurst

Update on my Hurst issue.

A great case of 'check the easy and inexpensive stuff first'

I was preparing to remove the carb to check for dirty/clogged low speed circuits, and when I went to remove the big, fat vacuum hose from the base of the carb that goes to the PCV valve, I noticed it moved/wiggled instead of being firmly attached. The hose was hard as a rock from engine bay heat and had a split in it near the clamp. When I checked the other end, the hose was also hardened and brittle at the PCV valve, and the cheap plastic PCV valve itself had a crack in it.

I had spare PCV valves in my stash, as well as some vacuum hose, but I needed to go to NAPA to get a new grommet for the valve cover as it was also petrified and broke when I tried to get the old PCV valve out of it. With new grommet, PCV valve, and hose installed, the car was back to running great and idling at low rpm (once the huge vacuum leak was fixed). $4.99 fix for a new grommet.

Of course, I've been chasing this issue in one form or another with timing and idle mixture screw adjustments for a few months until the hose and/or PCV finally completely broke instead of just causing a minor vacuum leak all along. Now I need to go back and readjust timing, mixture, idle speed with a properly running motor, but that will be much easier without an intermittent vacuum leak causing me fits.

On Wed, May 15, 2024 at 11:40 AM John Nowosacki <jsnowosacki@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Went to a great car show this past weekend but have run into an issue since.
The car ran great at highway speeds and at idle to and from the show, until I pulled into the street I live on when the engine stumbled and died as if it was out of gas.
I cranked the engine and stabbed the gas a couple of times and it started right back up, but was/is running ragged at low rpm/idle. If you slowly depress the gas pedal, it will stumble and try to stall unless you feather the pedal to get through that point and up into the higher rpm range, and it will then take off just fine and run at speed with no issues. Once it gets cold, and you tap the pedal to set the automatic choke, it fires right up and runs fine on the fast idle cam of the carb, but then as it warms up and the choke is wide open, I can't get a good low speed idle and it wants to stall under load until I get past about the 1500 rpm mark, then all seems to be well. Did I suck some crap from my 54 year old gas tank into the idle or low speed circuits of the carb? Did something change inside the distributor? Is the fuel pump only doing its job at higher rpm? I'd prefer a more logical approach to troubleshooting as opposed to shotgunning and throwing parts at the problem (fuel pump, carb rebuild, points, condenser, vacuum advance, etc.)
Any suggestions appreciated.