My 1967 toronado runs fine when engine RPMs are up to driving speed. When I stop for traffic or a red light, the car starts to shake violently, and will occasionally stall. Need some ideas of what to look at.
Engine mounts? Transmission mounts? Vacuum leaks? Exhaust manifold butterfly? Distributor cap/rotor? Plugs? Wires? what else....
Any "most likely" candidates? Thanks for your help!

 

Start with the ignition system, has a plug wire dislodged? Then check plugs, points, cap and rotor. If ignition system is good check the carburetor, is the choke plate opening all the way? Then look at vacuum hoses, any dislodged or cracked? Unfortunately there are a lot of possibilities, eliminate the simple before worrying about the hard. Good luck!

 

Adjusting the idle mixture screws helped my idle considerably ('66 Toro).

What is your initial timing?

 

Some basic troubleshooting on your part would help. What ignition and tuneup settings are you currently running? There are numerous reasons its not operating correctly.

 

Unless you suspect something has backed out the mixture screw somehow ... that's a bandaid at best.

After a quick visual inspection, a vacuum gauge would be the best starting point for a diagnosis if you have one. They're cheap. Does it change if it's wet out? When was the last tune up done?

 

Not if they were so far out they almost fell off, like mine were

 

Engine and transmission mounts would have nothing to do with rough idle or stall out. Open the hood when its dark and look for the lightning storm. If you see sparks flyin its an ignition system problem...
Sounds like you could have a fuel delivery problem, vacuum leak or an ignition problem. Or if your lucky a combo of them.

Provide some more info. Some history. Anything been done to the engine, carb, ign sys etc...How many miles on it. What type of fuel are you are running. Has it had regular maintenance? Did it just get pulled out of 30 year storage???

Start with the least complex problem on one system and drive it all the way home to the most complex. Once you've made it through that system and the problem persists then go on to the next system etc....If this over your head or you dont want to bother find a good wrench who loves old cars and make friends.


The rough running problem you describe could be a 100 different things. I had a 71 Eldorado that did this and drove me nuts till I found a bad distributor bushing which messed with the points. My Olds had a rough idle when hot. Gas was burbling out of the idle circuit due to fuel boiling. Had to drop the float level setting, insulate the carb and install heat riser block offs. Had an S10 that rough idled and stalled, found a leaking throttle shaft. I have good trouble shooting skills so these were easy for me to find. Mid-level to advanced trouble shooting skills are needed here to zero in on the problem efficiently. There are many tricks employed to six sigma this problem. As you can see its kind of tough to hit the nail on the head, on-line, sight unseen with an indeterminate problem.

Start with providing more detailed info on the car.

 

Thanks to all for the thoughts and recommendations. I replaced the dist cap, rotor, points. There was also a vacuum line that was loose at the connection on the engine so I replaced it too. Seems to be better.