Help experts! I am new to fords! I have a 55 customline 272 with a fordOmatic and it won't idle properly in gear. I checked the cam lobe lift using a dial indicator and it is approximately .270 The rockers are stamped 6564 which I understand are 1.54:1 which should result in about 415valve lift (sounds reasonable). It has an edlebrock 4303 500cfm carb on stock manifold, I checked the compression 130psi, I replaced the stock dist with an MSD distributor (mech and vac advance) set to 6deg BTDC at idle and 32deg advance all in at about 4000rpm, new wires and sparkplugs. If I set the idle at 500 rpm than it stalls when put in gear, so I set the idle at approx 800 rpm and in gear it idles at about 600 rpm but shakes the car pretty bad. Complicating the matter is aftermarket air conditioning which loads the engine at idle by about 100 rpm. I had the intake smoked for vacuum leaks and non found, and the idle vacuum is about 15in. I am thinking now maybe there is something wrong with the transmission. If you just leave it in neutral and turn on the A/C it still idles ok, but when put in gear it gets a bad case of the shakes. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Oh one other thing it has been converted to power front disk brakes. The power booster does not appear to be leaking.



John R

Austin, Texas