hey all,

ive recently bought a manual wagon by accident (discerning buyer???)

i bought it for parts but it goes, so.

does the same rule apply to modern fandagle engines with a gearbox as my old '66 xr wagon.
ie: after i think its tuned, should i be able to take my foot slowly off the clutch, and it should slowly start moving without jiggering around or stalling?

from what i have found from searching this forum, i think this wagon has a tow pack? or at least a heavy duty clutch fitted.

because despite my best efforts to tune it up, it still protests and sometimes stalls on flat ground crawl offs,
coming to a stop, it goes to almost stop in first gear before shuddering.

perhaps a bit more info may get me some help?

i haven't driven a manual car since the el came out in 1997, and i bought an auto because i was told the new (then) ford engines were built/designed to sit in front of an automatic transmission.

i was also told and sadly believed that if i didnt own a 1 million dollar car tuning computer i couldn't fix much of anything on the car. so i haven't tried tuning a car for twenty years.

jump to now.

ive got a manual wagon with a clutch that has no slip, and a clutch pedal that only has about an inch of movement off the floor in it before it grabs/disengages.
and an accelerator pedal from an old model t ford, in that, in neutral or with the clutch in, just touching the accelerator goes straight from idle to about 2000 revs and there is no inbetween.
which means i no longer have a driveway so much as a launching pad.
the only way to get the car moving is to pump the cluch and kangaroo hop or just let it go and hang on.

dont know what happened there?
i wasn't finished.

when i first got this wagon it just stalled whenever you let the clutch out, so not knowing any better i broke the seal on the idle screw and raised it a bit.
problem solved.

in searching the internet for answers i cam across muzza's dcr, happy happy happy.
one of the first codes it threw was clean your throttle body and ics.
when i pulled it out to clean and had a look, i noticed the butterfly sits just open a bit, but where ford had it superglued for 20 years was just where it fully closes so i put it back to fully closed.
does the computer need it fully closed at idle?
leaves me with a car that cant take off from idle.

any help would be appreciated

The clutch is mechanical so pumping it should make no difference if it is in good Nic. Most common problems that e series have is the firewall fatiguing and causing hard and inconsistent operation of the clutch. Suggest a search of this site for what to look for and fixes for it.

The pedal box also cracks. Stick your head under the dash and look

sorry, ive led you up the garden path.

its not pumping, like bleeding brakes, more like riding the clutch, out a bit push it back in, out, in, until ive got enough speed up to let it go.
if i dont do that, its 2000 revs and i go from stop to 20kms an hour in about 5 feet then straight to 2nd gear, then the car runs like a dream.

from what ive learnt from searches, im 98% sure the car was set up to tow a big heavy load.

on top of that it seems the computer needs time to get used to my driving or something without me disconecting the battery, which ive done often.


@ bry40l, to humour you, and respect your time, i double checked the plate thingy to be sure, all good.
sorry i asked the question the wrong way round .

@ twase, i poked the firewall with the fixit stick, no problems there either, and ive been interneting and fomoing here pretty much most nights for over 2 weeks.
trying to avoid having to ask dumbass questions, but most answers dont seem to anticipate my ignorance.
my mums dead, so i cant tell her my problems.
if i tried to tell my wife, she'd just remind me she said i wasnt allowed buy any more wagons about three cars ago. (but what does she know of fun anyway?)
that leaves me here asking what i dont know or understand, because here, i dont get to see you all shaking your heads wondering how ive survived this long.

what i really wanted to know is.

if i move the idle screw in and leave the butterfly valve open a bit, does that bugger up the computers idle settings/readings.

searching says moving the idle screw doesnt even alter the idle, but i moved it, the idle speed went up, and i could just drop the clutch at idle and cruise off.
but i was disconecting the battery every night back then. ahhh, fun times.

You can disconnect the idle control valve and set the idle manually and leave it unplugged or you can plug it back in if your having cold start issues. In my manual i had the idle set on the screw and left the idle valve unplugged and i found it to be better.

thanks for opening my eyes a little, bry40l,

to be honest, i think for now i might chicken out and just turn the idle screw up a bit and leave it plugged in for now, then do some more reading.

again thanks