linus6948

Funny that you say that Jerry, I`m actually sitting here waiting for the UPS truck to bring the new Airtex mechanical pump I ordered again from advance auto but the mechanical pumps are not stocked in the stores like the electric was. The NOS AC pump that is in their now will become the trunk spare, it works great but I`m afraid of what I`ve heard about ethanol and NOS pumps. The new Airtex can supposedly stand up to today`s excuse for gasoline, I plan on carrying an extra everything that I an extra one of, generator ,starter, water pump, it will be a lot of ballast for the trunk.

The pump fit nicely just above and forward of the rear wheel, I was trying to keep it as close to the tank as possible, I definitely like this modification to the fuel system.

I picked up the 6 volt Airtex fuel pump from Advance Auto today and mounted and plumbed it in using new fuel line. I have to say it is a nice unit and works well, it filled the empty fuel line up in seconds. Much easier than using air pressure to force the fuel up to the pump like I had to do last time my fuel line was dry.

Yes I was giving somebody the "high-sign" actually I think it was aimed at my Supervisor, sort of a salute, I`m afraid I`ve always had trouble with authority figures.

My Buddies new truck was quite an upgrade from what I got to cut my teeth on 30+ years ago like this dated Mack dump. I used to put 100 plus miles a day on this dated behemoth on the 6500 acres of aeronautical areas of JFK airport. This truck had locomotive grade airhorns too, but the jets could always out due me noise wise.

This also captured my curiosity and I tried 6 ways from Sunday to search it out on the web and came up empty, could not find a thing. In fact my Wife inquired what I was so intently searching out and she told me to forget about it as I was not going to do it in her house. She is still a little testy from when I charred some American White Oak in the basement for whiskey making. I thought the charred oak smelled great, she was in complete and utter disagreement and expressed her opinions at the time quite vehemently.

This type of scam happened to a guy I know, he was selling a vintage Firebird, on ebay, someone bought it and sent him a certified check for 7 grand more than the selling price. All he had to do was sent the extra money back to the purchaser and keep the rest as he waited for the car to be picked up. His bank took the check and gave him the money, the person did not come to get the car and shortly thereafter the bank took the funds out of my friends savings account against which the check had been cashed .He got a $7000 lesson and now most banks no longer accept "certified" checks as they are so easily counterfeited.

My Buddy bought himself a lightly used Peterbilt Dump Truck with low miles and a box that had only been used to haul sand. The driver who drove it to PA from Kansas over-reved the Cat diesel engine coming down a nearby mountain and blew the engine. The truck dealer in Kansas made good on their drivers error and forked over 10 grand for a Cat rebuilt motor with new injectors. As my friend has yet to get his air-brake endorsement added to his CDL license he needed someone to drive it home from the engine shop to his farm about 30 miles away. As I never dropped my CDL after retiring I offered to help him out by driving it home and then taking him out with his learners permit to practice getting used to the air-brakes. I had a blast rekindling old memories and it wasn`t a 1/4 mile before some distracted a-hole in a Mercedes almost met his untimely demise coming out of a parking lot right into my path. Happily this truck had a set of enormous air-horns which I instinctively laid into, I`m pretty sure the older gentleman in the German sedan 'soiled himself" but at least he lived to crap his pants another day. My friends air-brake lesson went very well all things considered, he was not familiar with using them at all but picked it up very quickly. He has bought himself one sweet truck, I`d be happy to drive it again anytime. Paul

I`m going to take the advice from Rich and get a 6volt fuel pump, I found the Airtex Part No. E8011 at a fairly close Advance Auto for $38 after applying a current 30% off one item discount coupon, I will probably use it as a primer pump on a rocker toggle switch.

My brake shoes are NOS, the wheel cylinders are Tru-Torqe brand I got thru Advance Auto, the master cylinder is made by Cardone, so far nothing with the Raybestos name, but the wheel cylinders were definitely Chinese made. Another reason for pulling the drums today was to take a look at those wheel cylinders after being in a few weeks. So far they look and work fine.

I`m outside of a small town named White Haven, it`s 20 miles south of WB and 20 miles north of Hazleton right along the Lehigh River.

Yesterday along with the rebuilt dashpot the new brake springs also arrived, so I`m finally replacing the tired stretched out springs that have been in there for decades and doing a readjustment of the shoes.

Well since it is the weekend and no one is shipping parts I looked around some more and found Advance Auto offered a better deal on this Airtex pump so I ordered one from them and cancelled RockAuto who was 10% more. Of course the car fired right up this morning like nothing was wrong, so I put it on the lift in the shop but I haven`t taken the tow bar off yet. I don`t know if a mechanical fuel pump can become intermittent but right now it`s pumping fine and yesterday not a drop, so I don`t trust it and being a 40yr old NOS pump I know it won`t hold up to the ethanol gas it wasn`t designed to use so it comes out as soon as the new one gets here. All the good information and advice I have found here on this site has changed how I look at NOS parts forever.

Well Rich I can completely agree with this good advice as I have now been bitten twice by NOS AC Fuel Pumps purchased in 1980. The first one lasted 10mins and the second one failed this morning after about 2 weeks of use, I have a new Airtex on the way from RockAuto, live and learn.

How I got home

So I got my rebuilt dashpot back from Daytona Parts this morning and I put it back in the carb. I then took it out for a test drive and I did notice the difference with the new dashpot installed. I was completely enjoying the ride until she sputtered and died. I thought I had run out of gas, so I put in 10 gallons.It was to no avail and I wound up coming back the 2 miles I had traveled on my well used tow bar. Apparently I was bitten for a second time by a NOS AC fuel pump bought in 1980 one of a pair that I got with the car. This very subject had come up in another thread and I can certainly concur at this point that it is bad practice to use an NOS fuel pump. The first one failed after 10mins of run time and this second one lasted about two weeks. So I placed another RockAuto order and a new one will come this week.

Well the Spearmint Oil arrived first so I added some of it to the red cedar and I have to admit it seems to really do the job. Makes the old girl smell like a rolling pack of just opened Wrigley`s Gum, it is a huge improvement over the mothball stench that the interior always used to have. Problem is now the wife wants to ride in the car, I`m afraid I might be losing my "Coupe of Quiet Solitude"

During my fuel system redo I replaced my varnish clogged fuel pump with a NOS AC pump one of two AC`s that I got with the car, there was even a receipt from 1980 when it was bought. The car ran for 10 mins. then quit, I hadn`t yet rebuilt the carb so I figured that was what stopped the car. I rebuilt the varnish and gunk clogged carb going by Mike`s Carburetor videos and when I primed the bowl the car started right up then quit. After doing this several times I called Mikes Carb and spoke to Mike and wanted to send my carb to him for a rebuild. Instead he made me tell him my whole story and he told me it was the fuel pump. I "gently" argued that it was a new one 10mins old so I disagreed and he "gently" snapped back at me that he trying to save me from an expensive carb rebuild and go out and replace my "new" fuel pump. Well I`m old enough to listen and took his advice and he was right on the money, the second pump went in and she started right up, he also made the arrangements to have my carb dashpot rebuilt with one of his competitors in Fla. I can`t say enough good things about the man, a hell of a nice guy.

It`s plastic and my initial "knee Jerk" reaction was disappointment, buts it is very functional and I actually prefer it now to the old type and certainly don`t miss the obligatory wrench. All in all the new Cardone master seems well made and the manufacturer pads and packs it like it was nitroglycerine in the box.

You said it Rich, like you added an extra room, I took to it right away and can`t say I have any complaints with the quality of it`s construction. I got motorized because it was the best deal they had on a 12ft awning in that color, turns out all the "blems" they put out are in that same Sand color. My buddy has a18 ft one that hand cranks, we took a length of rod and made a hook in the end and now he uses his DeWalt cordless drill to do the labor, works well. Paul

My better half had always wanted an awning on the backyard deck so I had to finally deal with it before she made the arrangements. Apparently the "Sunsetter Awning`s " latest television commercials had worked their magic on her. They control a third of the market and use tv ads, mailings and a dealer network to sell their awnings. The pricing for these awnings was different from one place to another, web site had one price, mailings another and forget the dealers. So I checked ebay and sure enough sunsetter has an ebay store. Here they call the awnings "blems" and drastically undercut their web site,mailings and dealers. So I called and a sweet young thing in their ebay sales dept. "off the record" admitted to me they were new awnings and made to order. They apparently call them blems for their own reasons, probably to keep their dealers from suing them for under-cutting their own pricing structure. It arrived UPS freight in a full sized 18wheeler, it was packed in a "sonotube" exactly like those used for concrete pillars. They recommend at least three people to install it, I was two people short, so I used my drywall lift to raise it and place it into position. I have to give it to the wife on this one, this thing is nice, I should have listened to her about one of these years ago. Paul

When I had to redo my fuel system I had a similar problem getting fuel from the new tank thru the empty lines to the fuel pump. I used something I read on jalopy journal to use an air compressor line to gently pressurize your system and push fuel up to your pump. It worked like a charm, I removed the inlet line to the fuel pump and waited for the fuel to arrive. Paul

Well apparently my master cylinder rebuild job wasn`t "up to snuff" because it gave me nothing but grief, so I ordered a new Cardone master cylinder from RockAuto and I had it Fedex in 3 days. So I pulled out the floor pan again and decided since I wasn`t feeling lucky I`d also replace the last two remaining pieces of old brake line, the ones that went from the front diffuser to each front wheel. They definitely weren`t the original lines and didn`t look that bad but I figured I `d replace them anyway so all the lines would be new. Paul

You`re all right Don, once someone get`s to know you, but I`m still not gonna laugh.

I appreciate your Wife`s input, I did not read about the spearmint oil, that is another smell I happen to be very fond of, thanks. Paul