Questionhi vern
recently bought a 73 vette 45000 orig miles.l-82 4spd. no ac-- manual brakes/steering.driving it home and going to pass, car did not accelerate acted like it was not getting fuel,however it did not quit running.talked to previuos owner he said he had not put fuel in it recently,and that maybe it was weak gas, but that he had not had that issue before.i replaced air cleaner filter,breather filter,pcv valve appeared to be ok,filled with 93 octane and have been driving it for 2 weeks. last eve. took out on country rd and got into it pretty good, and same thing happened while accelerating (55-65mph) but did not quit running, let off the throttle and ran fine. the only common denominator i have observed is that in both instances my fuel gage was reading on the low side but no way was i out of fuel.i was also told by previous owner to use a lead additive to fuel.this is an original (no modifications)num.matching 73 and otherwise runs,shifts,drives and rides fantastic.any suggestions you might have would be greatly appreciated thanks....mark
AnswerHi Mark:
The hesitation could be caused by a number of problems, so let start with the most obvious first.
1. Base on your description and the "low fuel" level when it happened, leads me to think you got trash in the fuel tank that is getting into the line when the fuel is low. Check the fuel filter for trash first to see if this is indeed the case. If so, dump and clean the fuel tank, blow out the fuel line and replace the fuel filter. You may also get this hesitation after a fill up. Try filling the tank and immediately taking her out on the road and she if she acts up. Then let her sit over night or a day or two to settle the trash and then take her back out on the road again. If it is trash, it would have all settled at the bottom of the tank and she should run as smooth as silk.
2. If the tests above prove inconclusive, you still may have a fuel system problem. The next possible thing is a fuel pump that is going bad. Sometimes the manual pumps' worn diaphragm can't push fuel fast enough to the carbs to take quick acceleration. But this should happen with a full tank of fuel as well as a empty tank.
3. And finally, it could be foul plugs or bad wires. In this case, she should run a bit rough even at idle. Slow acceleration would be okay, but quick acceleration would be difficult, since the plugs are not burning fuel efficiently. If this is the case, you should be getting some popping in the exhaust system from un-burned fuel.
