Request for a friend

[47heaven]

I have a buddy that has a 1953 Plymouth Cranbrook 4-door with a 218 flathead 6. He's running a 6 volt system on it still.

He's been having problems with it stalling an giving out while driving and won't start back up once it stalls.. He rebuilt the carburator a few months back and just installed a new remake of the original fuel pump with glass bowel filter. The gas tank is new, but the line from the gas tank to the pump is original, though he cleaned it out with an air line before installing the new gas tank. The line from the fuel pump to carb is new. He is assuming that it could be the carburator, but not sure. One day it stalled and he put in the throttle, but no gas was squirting into the throat of the carb. It ran fine for one day and the last three days it's been dying out. Any ideas what could be causing this? He's been trying to troubleshoot, but doesn't seem to be finding the source of the problem. Agian, I'm just posting what he told me. I will relay any info to him.

PS: I'm doing this because he has no interenet access, though he said he has tried to register on here a couple times, he never gets approved for some reason.

[greg g]

If he sucked a lot of stuff from the fuel tank through the system, the fuel pump might be plugged up. there is a screen type filter in the pump in the lower portion of the pump, it is accessable by removing the center bolt in the bottom of the pump.

does he have any fuel filters in the line?? Blowing air through the line can unclog the system but it can also stir up a lot of stuff in the tank. Also check the condition of the rubber line between the frame and the fuel pump. these will sometimes collaps under suction, choking off the flow of fuel. Have him check thin fulcrum pin for the cam lever of teh fuel pump. lots folks have seen the back out leaving a reletively new pump in operable as the lever no longer moves the diaphram.

[Captain Neon]

His ammeter may be going out. My P15 used to stall out and then restart until the ammeter finally gave out, and left me cold. Other than that, it sounds like he's sucking air.

[Jim Saraceno]

The first thing he wants to do is to do a pressure test and a volume test with his fuel system. That will tell him if it is a fuel problem. Pressure should run around 4.5 pounds and volume should run 5-6 ounces in 15 strokes.

Several years ago, I had a fuel line start to rust. As it was deteriorating, it sloughed off rust particles that got caught in the fuel pump. It then started sucking air into the system and eventually started to drip fuel. I had to replace the line and disassemble the fuel pump to clean out the mess in there. The symptoms were that it would start and idle just fine but would start coughing during higher speeds or running uphill. When I did the volume test, I was getting VERY little gas coming from the pump.

The problem is many things can keep a car from running properly, fuel and electric problems can have the same symptoms. That is why you need to do a few tests to determine exactly what the problem is.

[48mirage]

I ran into a problem on a carb once that had been rebuilt but it was an NOS kit. The "new" needle for the float system had a rubber tip on it. The modern gas softened the rubber and the needle would stick occasionally in the seat shutting off fuel. Went to a later kit that had the flapper type seat and it has worked ever since.

[47heaven]

Ok, guys. I went ahead and forward this to him. He's going to try what you have all said and run tests. He thanks you all.

[47heaven]

I ran into a problem on a carb once that had been rebuilt but it was an NOS kit. The "new" needle for the float system had a rubber tip on it. The modern gas softened the rubber and the needle would stick occasionally in the seat shutting off fuel. Went to a later kit that had the flapper type seat and it has worked ever since.

Where did you get your "flapper type" seat from?