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Out of curiosity, does your car have overdrive?

Might your car have a rotary vane fuel pump? If so when it is off your mechanical fuel pump may not be able to pump through it?

Three things needed for an engine to run: fuel, air, and spark - all at the right time and mixture.

If you want to test the fuel delivery system safely, go to an auto parts store (or even AutoZone) and pick up a marine gas tank and hook it up to the inlet side of the fuel pump and see if that (temporarily) solves the issue. You might also want to install a fuel pressure gauge, temporarily, such that you can watch it when the stalling occurs.

However, if the vehicle runs well cold and it doesn't stall until the engine warms up, keep in mind that an automatic chock, when closed, could be masking a vacuum leak. I'm assuming that you have ruled out leaking float needle/seat.

Not sure how to tell you to test/monitor a coil while driving, but the old oil-filled coils that were low on oil would overheat, especially after going uphill, due to weak or no spark.

As someone else noted, even a brand-new part can fail.

I currently have the mechanical fuel pump bypassed and am trying to supply fuel with a 5-8 PSI 6V electric pump mounted right at the pickup tube of the fuel tank. No overdrive, and we are 99% convinced it is a fuel delivery issue. We intend on doing some further testing on Monday and I will report back re the findings. Thanks for those taking the time to reply, much appreciated.

Not sure if it makes a difference, but electric pump for best performance should be at fuel tank level or lower?

Here are the four pages in the 1953 Chilton's Motor Age Service Manual that cover the Carter WA-1 carburetor. Hope information within might be the answer to your problem.

Steve

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That IS helpful Steve - thanks!! Chris

If you are still trying to get your car running good, try a new distributor ground lead, as this can cut your engine out everytime the breaker plate moves from advance to retard as the engine accelerates. New leads are scarce to find,they are made up of an extremely fine soft stranded copper wire(for flexing)

covert, you beat me to the ground strap suggestion. A bad distributor ground can cause all kinds of mysterious problems. Good idea. JWL

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the suggestion! I will check it out. I have had a guy helping me with the car who I consider to be extremely knowledgeable and he is absolutely convinced it is a fuel delivery issue. I am not convinced, as I had changed the carb for an out-of-the-box rebuilt when I bought the car and it did not make a whit of difference in the stalling.

Since 'David' has been helping me, we have pulled the gas tank (again; I had done it once before) and we found the pickup tube would not hold a vacuum. We also found that we were getting air pressure build-up in the fuel line. We remade the pickup tube out of copper and reinstalled everything. We also replaced the steel fuel line which, as far as I could tell, looked like it was original. It had crap in it and we found sediment in the carb that had gotten by the inline filter. 'David' suggested that maybe the rebuilt carb had gotten plugged up from this containment in the fuel line and that was causing the stalling. I have ordered another carb at considerable expense and now, with the re manufactured stainless tank, new pickup, new pump, new steel AND rubber fuel lines going to an out-of-the-box rebuilt carb, I figure if it still stalls (which I think it will) I/we can rule out fuel supply/delivery/carburetion.

After that, all I can think of is two things (unless there is something extraordinarily weird inside the engine) and that is valve clearance and distributor. If I can explain my thinking... if the valves were set cold with the clearance they were supposed to have when they were hot, when they DID get hot, they would be too tight and would not seal when they closed - thus the stalling after the engine is put under load and lack of power. (car bogs and won't 'go' in 3rd gear on a flat piece of road) and as far as the distributor goes, my thinking is if it is advancing with the centrifical weights under load and not returning quickly enough, the car could stall.

I am going to try the new carb - then investigate the valve clearances and then the distributor (which I have changed by the way, for a NOS unit that had never been installed before) and then I am going to dump the car and get out of this hobby altogether as I have never had such a long, convoluted, frustrating time trying to get something diagnosed and repaired in my life and if this is 'classic cars' it ain't for me!!!!