I know this could be one of a few problems...maybe even as simple as a tune up, but let me run this by you in hope that the specific problem is "common" or has happened to someone before.

First off, the Vette in question is a 1977 L48 4 Speed Manual Transmission. The problems may or may not be related.....

After running for awhile (say 5 miles or so) and with the engine plenty hot, the car seems to miss, or lose power, at low RPM. To be more specific, after coming to a stop at a light, I go to put the car in 1st, hit the gas, and the car wants to stall....and if I catch it right, I can prevent the stall, but the engine power isn't there until she's running high in 1st gear.....the problem does NOT continue through the other gears.

Now, If I don't catch it, and it stalls, its not real easy to start back up....but it does restart. However, the same power problem will be present.

It will go away after it happens and run normally again for another few miles, only to happen again. Its especially noticeable when Im bringing the car into the garage. I have to give an awful lot of gas when backing her up to keep it running.

Now here is the part that may or may not be related....twice when this happened, when I put the car in 1st gear, and let off the clutch, it was as if the car was still in neutral. Nothing happened. I was forced to start in 2nd...but as soon as I do, 1st gear is back. Im thinking this could be a simple adjustment, but transmissions is not my thing, so this I will bring to a shop...but I wonder if anyone else has had similar issues, and were they related??

As far as I know, the car does have only 65K original miles, so it really did not get driven much by the previous owner and I have continued that trend, driving it only once per week for a little bit.

I realize it could be as simple as a tune up, or a vacum leak (but I doubt the vacum leak 'cause I don't hear anything unusual and the problem is intermittent). Keep in mind, the problem only has appeared when the car is hot. It runs perfect until that the first sympton appears each time.

Any idea's????

 

First problem check the vacuum line to the distributor for cracked rubber lines.

Another possibility is there is either a overly rich or lean condition in the idle to part throttle tip in area of the carb. Look at the accelerator pump, the device that shoots gas into the throttle bores when you blip the throttle and see if it is in fact squirting fuel down the bores.

Second problem sounds like a transmission linkage problem, I can't help with that adjustment, hopefully someone else will chime in.