Engine stalled when cold?

[1984ranger28]

Hi, earlier this morning when going to highschool my Ranger would stall after trying to get it going. I had to put it into 4 lo and rev it to 3000 rpms (which hurt a little lol) but after driving for 30 seconds it went completely away. This has never happened before. Any ideas?

 

[RonD]

Not sure what the 4low was for??

Could be time to check the choke plate to see if its closing when engine is cold

Choke plate is on the top of the carburetor
When engine is cold you press gas pedal down once and choke plate should close, this does two things
It causes more fuel to be sucked into the cold engine to get enough vapor for start up
And it sets a High Idle Cam on the throttle linkage

 

[1984ranger28]

The choke is working completely fine. When on the fast idle cam, the choke plate is open 1/8". I made sure that nothing was binding. That is why it was so strange. I put it in 4 lo because it would immediatly stall out in 2 Hi as soon as the the clutch barely engaged. Even in 4 lo, it still stalled out.

 

[RonD]

So it was idling high, like normal, but had no "power" when you let out the clutch?

See if the float bowl is draining when engine is off
Before starting engine when its cold, look into the carburetor and open throttle manually a few times, the accelerator pump should pump out gasoline into the throat of the carb each time you open the throttle, it gets that gasoline from the float bowl
If it sprays out gas just once and nothing after that then float bowl is empty


Next would be spark timing, reset base spark timing
And check that vacuum advance is working, holding vacuum at distributor end

 

[1984ranger28]

Update: When driving to school this morning it showed no signs of low power.

 

[RonD]

Maybe you got some "bad gas" with last fill up

All gasoline has some water in it, it comes from condensation in the storage tanks, transport trucks and underground gas station tanks.

"Bad gas" is when there is too much water
Water is heavier than gasoline, but just a bit heavier
So it takes some time to settle out of the gasoline
When a vehicle sits over night any water will settle to the bottom of the tank

The Fuel pump pulls gasoline from the bottom of the tank.............................................
So the day after getting some" bad gas", assuming vehicle sat long enough, is when you would notice a running issue

Water doesn't add power to engine, of course, so low power and even misfires would happen until water was cleared out of the system

 

[1984ranger28]

I did run the tank almost empty, then filled it up the night before. So what you said makes sense.