Slow up hills

[Woodchiper]

I have a 1991 Marathon. And it runs great on level road. But going up hills it is very slow. This is with the stock belt so I put on a belt 1" shorter and it made it go up hills even slower and was lunging ( thought that the belt was slipping). Saying that could this problem be the clutch or maybe the torque converter be going out? I'm thinking there may be some type of linkage to adjust but runs pretty good on level road. What's your thoughts on this? Thank You

[dan161]

I had same problem with my 90 marathon and replaced the spring in the driven(secondary) clutch with the heavy spring and it made worlds of difference for me. You could also have other clutch issues going on like being plain worn out or just very dirty or something. FYI I also had my carb only opening up about 1/2 way....so it would get up to speed on level ground but then really dog going up hills, like get off and push almost. Now with 2 adults and 3 kids on it doesn't have much problem at all.