Good mechs

hey i know this might be inappropriate, but i've gotten no answer from the toyota forum. Plus i beleive y'all are very reliable when i get in a tight situation.
1.5 liter 4 cyl
carburated
new tranny
sat for a while on a farm

My freind, who is now 7 months pregnant, just got ripped off on a 88 tercel. I am trying to help her by fixing her car, but sadly i have hit a dead end. The car starts extremly rough. When accelerating at certain points it will jump from lots of power (for a 1.5) to no power, causing the car to jump around violently. This makes the car dangerous for her to drive esp. because she is just learning how to drive stick shift. I've sprayed down the carb with cleaner, used heet to remove water from feul system, used octane booster. I think it might be a back pressure problem, but please send in all ideas you have. Thanks Shawn

Shawn, I agree with the back pressure problem. The cat may have gone bad and is causing this issue. Since this is a carb. equipped car then it should be much easier to diagnose. You may also want to change the fuel filter as this could also be a fuel supply problem, the faster she goes the more fuel you need and if the filter is bad then it could be restriction fuel flow. A couple of other things to check are plugs and wires, rotor and distributer cap if equipped. Also check the egr if it has one and the pcv valve. Last thing to check is for a vacuum leak. Can cause rough idle. Hope these ideas help. If not post again and we'll be glad to help you out further.

I took the cat converter off (not for road use or any use at all at that fact) but it didn't run any better i noticed that there was a valve coming off the cat going back to the carb. Should i put a brand new cat converter on? is not enough back pressure a problem? new wires and plugs, fuel pump too. thanks again ST

Generally the faster you get the exhaust gasses out of the vehicle the better the engine will run so low back pressure on a carborated car is not a problem. You may want to check the fuel bowl and make sure the float is still in good shape. This sounds like there may be a problem with fuel level since it runs good to a point and then loses power.

Also, does this car have a distributer or a distributerless ignition system? There may be an issue there as well.