Fuel Mileage & Starter Woes

Tom's been reminding Ariel to record her gas purchases so that they could calculate what kind of fuel mileage I'm getting. The other night she calculated that I was only getting about 14 MPG. Far less than I should. Last night Tom started looking for gas leaks. He found dampness on a gas line where it entered a gas hose, so he tightened the clamp. He also replaced my fuel pump with a used one he had on a garage shelf. Corvair fuel pumps can adversely affect gas mileage because they can actually allow some gas to get into the engine's crankcase. Not good. If the fuel pump is bad, that would explain why my oil level's been acting strange the last few weeks.

The other problem that just cropped up was my starter not engaging properly. Ariel would turn the key and after a very short time of cranking, the starter would disengage before my engine starts. Tom removed the starter and noticed that the teeth on its drive gear were rather worn. Another garage shelf spare installed and I'm good-to-go.

Finally, he manually closed my heater door so that Ariel and her sister don't get roasted. He had to use a pair of pliers to close it because the cable broke. He got a replacement from the Corvair Ranch, but installing it is going to be a significant project.

The Little Things

The last couple of evenings Tom has addressed some issues. Both of my so-called mufflers (glass-packs without the glass?) were loose, my dash lights weren't coming on, and my driver's door still didn't want to close easily. He removed the two loose clamps, cleaned them up and re-installed them with a generous amount of anti-seize. Some scraping of corrosion and an application of di-electric grease on the fuse and my dash lights are good-to-go. He made another adjustment of my latch plate that seemed to help.

While he was under the dash he hooked up my replacement heater blower motor through the fan switch. I worked great and didn't blow any fuses. If there's no shorts in the wiring back to the fan, it looks like the new motor will fix that problem.

Still Blowing Fuses

Tom was back out in the garage last night trying to cross more items off of my To Do list. The first thing he tried to do was to figure out why I keep blowing the heater fan fuse. He cleaned the contacts in the fuse box and put in a new 10 amp fuse. He set the switch on low and the fan ran for about three seconds before the fuse blew. He checked to make sure that there wasn't a direct short to ground through the circuit, and found that the resistance was 2 ohms with the switch in the any of the three speed positions. That seems low, so it looks like my blower motor is shot.

After that he finished pressing in my new Pittman arm bushing using some newly machined spacers. Then he put back the interior pieces he'd removed when adjusting my driver's door. Finally, he took a razor blade and scraped the excess RTV from the back window glass and trim. I'm ready for the road again.

A Warm Garage = Shorter To Do List

When Tom got home from work yesterday, he fired up two of the kerosene heaters, so I knew I'd get some of his precious time. The last couple of evenings he's been working on other cars in his fleet, but now it was my turn. After the recent flat tire, Tom promised Ariel that he would put better tires on me. He had three decent spare tires from previous Corvair. One of them had replaced the flat rear one, so the other two were installed on the front last night. The issue he needs to resolve is that I know have three tires that are 185/80-13 and one that is 185/70-13. The odd one is on the right rear. One of the tires he removed is still in good shape, so he'll install that one on the left rear. We'll see if Ariel notices the difference of two inches in diameter.


While I was up on jackstands, he tackled the replacement of the Pittman Arm bushing. Note that all pictures are courtesy of Clark's Corvair Parts Website.

Getting the old, rotten one out wasn't too bad other than removing the bushing's metal shell from end of the drag link. He had to cut and chisel out the sheetmetal where it had bonded by corrosion to the inside surface of the hole. With the old bushing out, he coated the hole and the new bushing with anti-seize and pressed it in to the hole using a socket and large c-clamp. Unfortunately, he didn't have a way to get the bushing in the last eight of an inch. He needed some large washers with holes that would fit over the bolt head to allow him to press directly on the flange of the shell.

He also needs to buy a new nut since the old one was rounded off during removal.

With the bushing installed as far as possible, he turned his attention to the replacing the throttle linkage bushing at the transmission with new parts.

He also replaced the busted accelerator cable boot, the melted vapor vent plug on the left carburetor, and PCV tube gasket - all with new parts from Clark's.

Whew. The busy guy was able to cross a lot of items off of the To Do list. He also promised me he'd be back out again the next night for more work.