Weird issue with my Carry that has me, several backyard mechanics, and one real mechanic confused. Problem> After I bought the Carry, it ran great for one weekend. Ran around all over the island, no issues. Day three, it starts choking, sputtering, and backfiring when under load, and can't maintain speed going up any kind of a hill. Several days of this, then a couple days of it running just fine. Then it happens again. Friends have many different ideas. It's the spark plugs, the catalytic converter, crap in the fuel. Take it in to a mechanic. He says it's not the cat, he disconnected the exhaust to test, and the problem still occurred...after several days of confusion, he concludes it's the distributor. So I order a new one, he installs it and proclaims problem solved. So..runs great for three days, then the problem is back again. I take it back to him, and he fiddles with it some more, adjusting the timing...proclaims it's fixed. Runs fine for one day....then the issue sort of returns, but it's a bit better....no backfire, no obvious sputtering, but it's still acting like it's not getting enough fuel or air, or something, because it still can't go up a hill faster than 35. It will gain power for a second, then loose it again, over and over. Any ideas? Things to check? God to pray to? Note that it will run just fine below 40 on a flat, but go faster, and/or go up a hill, and it chokes. And weirdly, some days it runs just fine. I'd pull my hair out, if I had any.
Gunk in the tank, clogged filter, or fuel flow issue. If the charcoal canister is not working it can lead to pressure in the tank which can lead to an over pressure on the fuel input to the carb. These carbs run with a very low fuel pressure of 2.5 to 3 psi and do not tolerate anything over that. I had to bypass my charcoal canister for exactly this reason.
Turned out to be both options 1 and 2. Got the tank dropped and cleaned, and fuel filter replaced, and it's running much better now! Still no torque above 40mph, but I guessing that may be normal.
