carb issue, please help.

[ectonine]

1989 festiva carbureted. i start the car up after sitting all night and it dies. i pump the gas pedal 5 or so times and it will start back up but die quickly if i do not raise the rpms. if i hold the gas pedal to the floor after the vehicle has started it will slowly work its way back to death and after a few times of this i can hold it to the floor and it will not go above 3,000 rpms. once i do get the car moving it will die if i do not feather the clutch and gas pedal right, and even after i get the car moving up to speed for the first few minutes it will stumble all through the gears. then it clears up and i don't notice it anymore--jeremie

[canlboater]

does it stutter at all when you stomp on the gas? My 93 had sorta the same problem when the battery was going out and was not fully charged

[ectonine]

it does studder when i floor it all of a sudden. could be a battery issue, i have thought about it before but the vehicle has an optima yellow top. i figured the battery was fine but have not checked it lately. just seems to me its a carb problem. the car kinda idles funny to. all the vaccums have been replaced--jeremie

[rpickle]

Hi ectonine. I'm not an expert by an means (just got an '88 Festiva 2 months ago). This car had sat for 3 years w/o running. Lots of crap in the fuel system. I field stripped the carb and soaked it in Barrymans. Cleaned up nicely. There are 2 small "filters" internal to the carb. One is located underneath the float needle valve attached to the seat. This has clogged up on my twice now (after the total carb clean). The other is on a screw (for lack of the correct term). It is recessed down in the carb body a bit. Unscrew it and there is a tiny screen on the end of it. Clean both of those out. Replace the in-line fuel filter too. If you're lucky that will cure your ills.

Rick