What is happening?

[76white02]

So all of the sudden this afternoon my car starts to roughly idle to the point of stalling. The red "L" on the cluster lights up right before stall. When the car is driving, you can actually feel it "putt" as if i were running out of gas. When I come to a stop, i have to keep my foot on the gas other wise the car will go crazy and stall out.

I am a newbie at this car, so could use some help on some possilble problems.

Thanks

[ryanOC]

it might help to have an idea on what your car is running

check the distributor and make sure it's fastened

if you have a carb, maybe check your idle solenoid and its wire

[76white02]

it is a '76 with a manual trans.

[jmiller]

Check your idle jet...unscrew it a little; if idle improves, that's the problem. Clean it out with compresses air. Hope that's all it is. Good luck. BTW, your alternator light is on because of the low idle and should go out when the idle problem is fixed.

Jeff

[esty]

could also be as simple as a dirty fuel filter

[robspeed]

So all of the sudden this afternoon my car starts to roughly idle to the point of stalling. The red "L" on the cluster lights up right before stall. When the car is driving, you can actually feel it "putt" as if i were running out of gas. When I come to a stop, i have to keep my foot on the gas other wise the car will go crazy and stall out.

I am a newbie at this car, so could use some help on some possilble problems.

Thanks

just for the fun of it, try turning on the lights as its running. if it tries to die due to the electrical drain, id look at all your electrical connections starting at the battery ground strap. its possible the coil isnt getting the voltage it needs to fire nicely. or the coil could be bad. does it rev up OK? get a spare plug and check your fire on each of the plugs (BLUE=GOOD) while holding the plug against the valve cover for ground. use gloves or a NON-gasoline-soaked rag to avoid a JOLT. checking spark is easy and eliminates a variable on that side of the equation. {combustion = fuel/air, compression, ignition.}

[VaderDave]

Maybe it's a vacuum leak? I had a plug pop off my intake manifold and my idle went to hell. As soon as we plugged it again, things immediately smoothed out and I haven't had any problems since.

[chrome68]

Rob brought up a good point, although it is most likely to be the jet, filter or a vacum leak. if not, I once had this problem due to electrical and turned out to be the alternator. it dident quite die on me, but sputtered and shook so badly, it felt like my mounts where broken and the engine was going to hit the hood.. but smoothed out around 2k. turned out it wasnt putting out enough current at idle, and the battery couldent power the coil long, due to it's poor charging. also if it's not on the gas end of the spectrum, are you running points? Just thought I'd throw this out there, but I'd check the fuel/air stuff first.