Sneaky Problem

After Tom and Ariel finished getting me back on the road, a new problem arose that was tricky to diagnose. The symptoms were: started up just fine, idled and ran for a few minutes fine, engine died when stopped at a light, started up again until next stop and then died, started up and would run fine on the highway and afterwards. Tom thought it was a choke issue since the engine only died soon after it was started. He checked me when I was cold, and both chokes were closed. He started me up and I ran just fine, but Tom increased the fast idle speed somewhat by opening the gap circled below. After idling for about 2 minutes, my engine died again. Tom tried to re-start it, but I just cranked and cranked. He inspected my carbs only to find there was no gas. To make a long story short, he looked around and discovered that my inlet fuel line had a hole rubbed through on its underside where it was contacting the sheetmetal shroud. See area circled in red. Since this is on the vacuum side of the fuel system, it didn't spew gas as an indicator of failure - just left a small clean spot on the shrouding. Tom scoured his collection of pulled parts and found a replacement line - one that didn't rub on the shrouding - and installed it. All's fixed after re-adjusted the fast idle speed back down again.

Back On The Road

Sunday, Tom spent the afternoon putting my front suspension back together. He also hooked up the new gas tank, adjusted the fuel pump (that was making a knocking noise), replaced the wiper motor (now it will actually park correctly), adjusted the brakes, pulled off the bottom engine shrouds and thermostats, and tightened the loose fuel fittings. On the test drive the engine died at the bottom of the hill. Thinking he hadn’t put enough gas in the tank for the pickup, he hiked back to the house and drove his car down with more gas in the can. Another 2+ gallons and my engine still wasn’t getting gas. After another trip home for a replacement fuel pump that he installed and all’s great. I cruise along smoothly and brake straight with no more clunking or pulling.

Getting My Front End Back

Ariel and Tom started reassembling my front suspension last night. They got just past the point of installing the springs. Ariel says I look like a functioning car again. One more good evening and I'll be back on the road.