'85 Vicky Stumbles on acceleration

a combination of old carberated cars and cold weather. 95% of the time this problem is greatly helped by a nice little tune up, plugs, wires, fuel filter, air filter, and running over all the vaccum lines to make sure there's no cracks or leaks. could also be a weakening fuel pump, but being you said its cold weather related, probably a combination of the things i already mentioned. take a step in that direction first, throw a tank of high test into it and see what it does too. could possibly be a carb in need of a rebuild...but thats usually more of a spit and sputter continuously thing in a stock older car...pretty unlikely given the weather relation...she's just old and needs a little love.lol

Thanks Johnny, It's not always cold weather... it happens in the summer as well. I've done all of the tune up except the fuel filter and the carb rebuild... the only place I can think there would be a vaccum leak is in my steering column... which I don't understand.... but there is a Hiss from my Gear selector, most pronnounced when in park... it goes away in gear. chances pitch if I wiggles the selector handle back and forth... As for the fuel pump, I know I've got a problem in my sending unit becuase the gas guage doesn't work. but it seems to be getting fuel okay, so I don't think the problem is there. it never sputters at speed or gives me any trouble while in motion... only from a standstill.

i'm not extremely familiar with fords being a chrysler/gm guy....but the first thing i'd do is get a new fuel filter...this is a HIGHLY overlooked problem that can have people changing carbs and fuel pumps for no reason, i've seen it done. it could still be a weakening pump...just b/c it doesn't seem to do it up to speed doens't mean it's nto fuel related...think of it this way, best fuel economy is at 55/60 right? so the engine is actually using less fuel at that range...so if its struggling when you mash the throttle, then catches up when it gets to speed could easily be a pump or filter....but like i said before though, she's old....the wierd hiss has even got me shaking my head?lol....i dont think your gear select is vaccum driven?? but old chryslers used to have push buton selects that used it so i suppose it's possible.....but back to the carb questions...depending on the amount of smog crap in your engine bay...you may be able to borrow a buddies and throw it on there and see if the problem persists...but i dunno about how mechanically inclined you and your buddies are...so hope this helps. get back to me if u want more input

I'll try the fuel filter first when I've got a moment, it's likely the easiest one to check first. My buddies are pretty mechanically inclined, but I'm the only Ford guy in the bunch. and the only one who drive a car old enough now. Even my buddy who was driving a '77 grand Lemans drives an '06 elcipse now... (not that the parts would fit anyway...) Carb's due for a rebuild anyway I think, so it might just come down to being something that needs to be done. I want to save messing with the fuel pump last becuase it requires dropping the tank, and all the nastiness that comes with that... I want to get that done too though, since it would be nice to have my fuel guage back... there's no buttons or anything to my gear selector just a big chrome handle... I really don't know what the cause of the hiss is, it doesn't APPEAR to have affected anything... it's just annoying at this point... If anyone else has an idea on that, I'm open to suggestion. Thanks Johnny.