Going in gear

[Kaharris2010]

I just bought an 88 mighty max I put new plug wires on the thing runs fine I can hammer the gas but when I put it in gear it dies and won’t start again I thought it may be a clutch issue or vacuum line but I’m just lost at this point, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated it’s the 2.0 motor.

[geezer101]

Hi and welcome to mightyram. Could be a number of things - bad carb adjustment (air/fuel mix), a low compression issue, engine tune... If you let the engine sit at idle for a while, does it run normally and what is the idle rpm like? Some people do goofy stuff like try to adjust engine idle rpm with the distributor first instead of making base idle adjustments on the carb and setting the timing afterwards. This can really screw up how the engine will run. Do the basics - check idle, timing advance, plug gaps etc. Someone else will chime in on this