DonaldSmith

I find that I can still put in a full day's work, but it takes me a week or two. 

So now he tells me.   We'll see what Mike's Carb says about how I have the clip now.  On the other hand, if it will keep me awake at night, or drive with trepidation, I might just pop it out and pop it in again, like I'm getting good at it.  I'll see what I think in the morning.  (Mike's did furnish me the ball, so that implies messing with the clip.)     

Snapped into place.  But- 

I kept working on the clip, and I got it under the four lugs, but, the open end is not in the space opposite the ball, but in the next space.  Is this a problem?

I can get the clip in position above the lugs, but if I try to compress part of the clip to get it into the notch of one of the four lugs, the clip will flip around.   And it's hard to see what I'm doing. 

My new needlenose plyers can get the clip in position, but then I can't see where to poke a screwdriver. 

I put our a distress message to Mike's Carbs.   We'll see if they have any suggestions. 

Yep, two balls.  (There are other balls permanently in place.)  I got them in the right places.  The small one nest in a depression at the bottom of the accelerator pump shaft. 

The problem with the wire C-clip is that it does not want to sit near the bottom of the shaft with the open end opposite the ball.  Attempts to push the clip down and into place result in the clip flopping around out of position. 

I just bought a small pair of needle nose plyers.  We'll see how they work.  (The handles are pink, but I ca claim that the plyers are my wife's.)  

C-clip conundrum - Carb going together, step-by step.  Pump Discharge Pump Ball (the smaller ball) in place in a recess in the bottom of the pump shaft.  To be secured with a wire C-clip that engages four lugs.  The C-clamp keeps the ball in place.  The ends of the C-clip should be opposite the ball. 

The C-clip came out easily enough, but I have trouble getting it back in place.  Too deep and dark for needle nose plyers.  "Special tool"?  Another way to secure the ball?  Artistic bend of a paper clip?

Here's the carb body, with a view down the pump shaft, with the wire C-clip beside the carb.   The ball is out of view, but two of the four lugs are visible.   Hep!

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Someone could have a cottage industry making rear windows.  Maybe have to be acrylic.  I saw something where a glass company has a sand bed that they contour (per computer, I'm sure) to the required shape, and the hot, limp glass settles into the required shape.  But probably big bucks.   Somewhere in the process the glass has to be flash cooled, to set up the skin stress that makes the glass "tempered". 

Back to the 42 Imperial limousine with the curved glass windshield.  A prototype, I'm sure.  But how did Big Glass Co, custom bend glass for a car or two?  

A whole subject for internet searches.

Shazam!  My big old screwdriver fit perfectly!  All that angst over a special tool to remove the "Dash Pot Valve Cage".  I blasted it with carb cleaner and compressed gas and now I can screw it back in. 

On to the next minutia.  Step by step, check my work.  When I got this rebuilt carb several years ago, I took photos of it from six views.  Those photos are invaluable to check if I got the parts back together right.    

The Simple Green has been mixed, and the major carb parts are soaking in it.  (2-hr max or the metal will discolor.)  Then rinse, dry, blow out passages, ,etc. 

Been waiting for days for a special tool.  Comedy of errors.  The seller mistakenly cranked out a rebate for me.   Then I received the tool and found that the tool is nowhere close to being right.  Wrong info on the forum?  I'll pay the postage to return the tool, and leave the rebate as it stands. 

I thought the tool came from Mike's carbs.  No, they cobble their own tools if they need them.  But soaking the parts should work.  Maybe clear the passages with a wire.  Don't remove the main vent tube - blow it out.   I removed the throttle valve, for cleaning off gas residue, but they recommended leaving the choke valve alone.  I'll clean the small parts as needed.  Assemble per the book, per the book.  Take my time.   

My Shop Manual illustration shows me that  carburetors for use with the semi-automatic transmission have additional features:

Kick-down switch built into the carb body. 

Dashpot system, with:  Anti-Stall Magnetic lockout and Screw;  Dash Pot Lifter Link and Pin;  Dash Pot Rod and Plunger;  Dash Pot Valve Cage, with Valve Cage Plunger and Rod and Operating Spring.  I'll know these by heart by the time I'm through. 

Mike's Carburetors kit seems to have all the special parts, and then some.  Two versions of needle valve seat, for different connections to the fuel line.  Scads of gaskets, for  every conceivable variant.  Good instructions, but light on dash pot info. 

Wish me luck. 

I've got a metal in-line filter on the tank side of the electric fuel pump on the frame rail, as recommended by the pump manufacturer, and a similar filter on the inlet of the mechanical pump.  And the mechanical pump has he glass sediment bowl,  I think I have it covered.   

Glass bowel?  (He means bowl.)  An easy typo. I'll go back to my corner. 

Class today on "Vent Tubes". 

Mike's Carbs' diagrams and instructions cover a thin tube that goes up at an angle from under the main body, No. 36, the "Tube -Main Vent".   "Do not remove it unless you have a special tool."   OK, I won't.

Then there's that slotted brass thing at the lower left, for which I am awaiting the special tool, known only as a "Vent Tube"? 

This is the Fluid Drive, automatic choke carb, so it must have a special function, something to do with the large chamber beside it?  Dashpot?  Yes! My Shop Manual shows all sorts of dashpot parts.  I should be working off the diagram in the Shop Manual, to supplement the instructions that came with the repair kit.   Happy days. 

I'm getting the Simple Green tomorrow, and through this week I can clean everything except the main body, which will still have the vent tube installed. I may use separate jelly jars for the related parts which I am keeping in separate bags, to keep each group together.   I can begin to reassemble things that don't go in the main body, until I get that special tool for the vent tube.  (An egg carton would work to keep the parts separate, but I can imagine myself bumping it and scattering the contents.)

Of course, I have to take things to extremes, like easy access to the mechanical brake switch.  But I also have the Jiffy Jet bulb under the floor .  So I cobbled a removable part of the floor pan.   

(Shown hers, with the main panel removed.)

(Jiffy Jet plunger, between the pedal arms, pedals off.  Mechanical brake switch arm and red wires, below the panel.) 

I've started the carburetor disassembly -keeping the small parts in zip bags.  Mike's carbs included detailed instructions, which I'm following religiously.  I won't be able to  clean the carburetor until I remove the vent tube, and the tool won't get here for another week.  I did stick a screwdriver down the shaft and engaged the vent tube slot.  It took little turning to see that the screwdriver wanted to slip out of the slot.  OK, I see. 

I've looked into the Simple Green Pro Heavy Duty instructions for the day I can dip the parts.  I've been keeping the various related parts together in the bags.  Maybe I'll soak them together in separate containers. I don't want to get the balls mixed up.

(You sophomores in the back of the class can do something with that, such as, "I told the parts guy that I had all the carburetor parts; I have two balls, and one is smaller than the other.  He looked at me funny."  This also works in a discussion of parts for a trailer hitch.  I'll go back to my Andy Dodge corner now.)  

I had the generator by the street, but I began to think someone would grab it for the copper and other metals, and dump the gas/oil in the gutter and the city would yell at me.  One time we threw out a CRT monitor.  A guy asked to have it.  Then he broke the tube and took the parts he wanted.  So the generator is back in the garage.  Maybe some year I'll work on it.   

I guess the glass jars are expendable, unless the little woman keeps her own.  Any small nick could lead to the jar cracking under the heat, and there go the tomatoes.    Oh, well, recycle the glass and someone will make wonderful things from it.   

We have a 2011 Buick Enclave, and a 2008 Ford Fusion.  The Fusion is our daily driver, and the Enclave is used or trips and bulky loads.  So, would these have sensitive uber modern emission systems?    I suppose I would put the elixir in the Fusion, to get it burned away sooner. 

Or:

I checked  the local recycling center.  They will take the gas, in a fire-marshal-approved container, that would not be returned.   I have two 5-gallon plastic cans.  I suppose I  could give one up for the cause.  I've had the two cans so that I could re-fuel the DeSoto without having to drive it out to Sam's.  I've got time to mull this over, since the recycling center is booked till the end of the month, and maybe past the Fourth. 

It'll just weigh heavily on my mind, since I dug out all these Garage Sale treasures from the hidden recess of our house and garage, and I don't really ant to put them back.     

I had a garage sale this weekend, on short notice, and about as successful as a lemonade stand.  No one wants canning jars, or most of the stuff I had dragged out of storage.   I had a welder and small generator, which few people even noticed.  I'll recycle the canning jars, maybe keep the wire "flux capacitor" welder, and trash the generator in the metals bin at the recycle center.  They would probably want the gas drained first.  I don't want to get yelled at.

The generator is full with two gallons of gas, and I have another dedicated one-gallon can full of the elixir.  How to dispose of old gas with the 2-cyele oil in it?  My miser instinct says pour a little at a time in the almost full tanks of my daily drivers, until one day it's all gone.   It seems this would work with gas that is just old, but am I asking for trouble from the oil? 

I'll probably go on-line and find answers, some of them valid, but I wonder if you guys have any experiences with the issue.    

I've got my parts from Mike's Carburetors and I am diligently reading the instructions.  "Tool No. T109-70 must be used to remove tube and to install new tube."

I see such a tool on line, Buy It Now, for $20.  But it also looks like something I could cobble together.  There's a narrow shaft about an inch or so long, with a slot cut in the end.  Then the shaft fattens u[p and extends up a way, with a hole for a cross arm.  

Comments?  Experiences? Any other tools that would make the job easier?

The one that got away.

Gentlemen, I bow to your acquired wisdom.  For a long haul, pull the driveshaft (after marking it for proper reconnection).   Don't temp fate. 

When I first got the car, in 2002, I used a dolly, dropped the driveshaft, and towed the car with my son's Jeep SUV.  He let me drive, and I drove slowly and carefully. 

I checked the Shop manual.  I see that the oil pump drive gear is on the main shaft, right next to the speedometer gear.   Theoretically, the transmission should be OK if the car is towed with the rear wheels on the road.  But what do I know.  

I checked the standard U-Haul towing trailers.  My wheelbase,  11'-7-1/2", won't sit happy  on a12'-4" bed.  And the car would hang over about 3 feet, front and back.   We would have to find a longer trailer.   

This gives me something to think about while I'm waiting for the carb rebuild kit.  (Per the "Won't rev" thread)

Thinking contingency plans for our jaunt to the National DeSoto Club Convention this summer, my son-in-law has a truck capable of towing my 2-ton beast, with a dolly.  It wouldn't be much fun, 55mph (88 kmh) or less.  But if I can't get the Big Brown Car running, the dolly is an option.  

Question:  Would we have to remove the driveshaft, or will the M5 transmission tolerate the revolutions?   (In ancient times, my brother trashed a Hydra-Matic by trying to push-start a  Cadillac.  U-Haul recommends the dolly only for front-wheel-drive cars, to avoid such a possibility.

The vacuum advance was connected to the carb, and has been.  This symptom came upon me suddenly.  The carb is off, waiting for the rebuild parts.   (The battery is disconnected, lest some absent-minded fellow (me) turns the key and turs on the electric fuel pump.)

While the line is disconnected from the carb, can I check the vacuum advance with some sort of pump? .  

Langdon 2 bb conversion?  Tell me more, tell me more!