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First I must say I am new to my Thing and fixing my own car in general, but I have managed to succecfully fix some ailments on my new toy. Anyway, I recently replaced the muffler, previous to which the car was running pretty well. While at idle it sounds ok, when I put it into gear it takes off but then quickly loses power. I am lucky to get it going over 25mph. Help! I am not sure where to start, someone suggested the vacum advance off the distributer, but I do not have one. It seems to be what they call the mechanical kind. Any suggestions would help. Thank You!!

Welcome to the Thing 181 Forum. Since the car starts and idles well but will not run at speed it is likely to suspect that either you have disturbed your timing or have pulled a plug wire off. With either problem it would not run as well as it should at an idle but if you are not very familiar with things that could escape you.
While the car is idling pull wires one at a time from the top of the distributor cap using an insulated tool. With the coming and going of each wire you should hear a noticable difference in the sound of the engine. If one fails to make a difference trace it to the connector at the spark plug to insure that it is connected. If it is connected then pull the plug itself to be sure there has not been carbon deposited on the electrode. If all this checks out then you have to check your timing and the advance mechanism in the distributor. That we will cover next. I`m sure some other guys will have ideas as well. Good luck and keep in touch. Bob Ingman

Crazy thing I've done at times---- are all of the plug wires in the correct firing order?

T.