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Hi there,
My '69 Ford Cortina 1600GT was sitting on my driveway and decided to pull into the garage. It started and ran fine and once I pulled in, I shut it off. Later on I started it again, reversed it out about 10 feet and it just died all of a sudden. I couldn't get it to start and stay running after that (it's been about 24 hours since that happened from now).

I checked if it has spark, and yes it does and it also has fuel. The car won't even fire up. I had some starting fluid laying around and decided to use that and it started but it won't stay running UNLESS I keep feeding it starting fluid.

I wonder what could be wrong? It's quite bizarre as this was all of a sudden and I've been driving it regularly before. If anyone could help me out please that would be great.

Thanks!
Daniel

Doesn't sound like an electrical issue. I would first disconnect the fuel line to the carb place a heavy rag underneath the fuel line output and have someone turn the engine over a few rotations. There should be a good pulse of fuel coming out the line. If fuel tinkles out it maybe a bad fuel pump.
To be continued...

How old is the fuel?

Checked the fuel pump and it's working as it should. Fuel is only about 2 weeks old

As you mentioned, this problem happened all of a sudden. I would now suspect the carb. Check the jets for any blockage esp. the primary and secondary idle jets. They are easily accessible.

I put a new intake manifold gasket, took of the carb and cleaned the jets and put a new gasket in. I was able to get it started but it takes a lot of cranking for it to do so, even when it's up to temperature - used to start without any effort at all. I have to keep hitting the throttle to keep it running because it won't idle steadily varying from 500-1100rpm or sometimes it'll just die. I never messed with any of the adjustment screws and it was running perfectly before (idling at about 900rpm before when warm w/out choke).