Me and my husband have a 1972 Dodge Dart Swinger, Slant six.. I'm not sure if anyone here can help but we are trying to figure out what is wrong with it.

It has a rebuilt engine and we have not put too much driving miles on it we have had it 3 years. In the past few days it's been acting up, it dies when in first gear and stopping. It just conks out. But in neutural it's O-K to stop and does not conk out (only word i can think of). My father in law messed it up even more saturday by playing with it and now not only does it conk out when you stop while in 1st gear, but now when you are driving it makes a funky noise and won't get above 20-30 mph most of the time. HELP! What would cause it to conk out like that? A view of the suggestions people have told me is the carborator - the spark plugs - or the vacuum lines.

Any suggestions as to what it could be? I really don't have the money to take it to a mechanic we usually just head out to an auto parts store and do it ourselves. Thanks!

Along the lines of the sparkplugs, look into the cap/rotor, plug wires, and the coil. Bad coils can get flaky at high rpm and cause issues.

Just some thoughts here. Do you still have points ignition? After 3yrs I would replace them and gap to .019" or so. Make sure your dwell is within range. Check the float level in the carb. Make sure the idle screw is set properly (usually 1.5 to 2 turns from lightly seated). Like Pierre said, coils can be flacky. Been there, done that on those! Let us know what you find out!

Make sure the spark plug wire are on the correct plugs, the firing order is 1-5-3-6-2-4

When it runs, does it miss and run rough?

Did it start running bad all of a sudden or did it happen over time?

It could be that the valves are set to tight and need adjusting.

DD