1980 L-48 with Rochester Quadrajet carburetor. Randomly stalls while driving and then will not restart immediately. Crank it over a couple of times and will eventually start again, usually after 3-5 minutes. When stalled, hit the throttle while looking into the carb and no fuel flowing into the primary jets. I have replaced the fuel filter, fuel pump, had the float adjusted but it continues to randomly stall while driving. Can be cruising at 50 mph and then just stalls. Any ideas? Thanks for your help.


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Adams' Apple2011-07-20 05:03:42

could be the rubber hoses roting and causing a restricted fuel line,  pull the fuel line at the carb and add a rubber hose to the end of the steel line and put the hose into a good size container and crank the engine, you should get about a pint in about 30sec, don't forget to ground or disconect the distributor,  if equiped check the seperator valve and the charcoal canister, not sure about a 80 vette but most canisters have a replacable paper filter at the bottom, kinda looks like a coffee filter, take a flash lite look inside of the tank, ck for rust or a possible clogged pick up sock. anips2011-07-19 21:15:45

Imma thinkin the same thing...restriction somewhere. Also, try driving with the fuel cap loose, and see if it still stalls. That would point to a clogged purge line/stuck purge valve on the canister. This would create a vacuum inside the fuel tank, and could cause it to starve for fuel until it sits for a few minutes. A vapor lock would do the same thing.

This may or may not be the problem, but I had a similar issue with a Chevy Suburban, with carb, of that vintage...under high load it would just cut out. Turned out it was water in the fuel tank that you would have no issues while at idle in the driveway, but when you would demand full fuel flow, it would flat die out.