i've just about had it.! ready to fold on this car stuff.!!

[claybill]

i am having trouble with simple things......

i have 41 COUPE WITH A NICE 318 V8/AUTO..i know i am asking for trouble, but i sunk a lot of bucks into this car..and it should run..12v.

last fall i had a gas sending unit problem..i thought it was the wiring but it was the unit..50 bucks for new unit and gage, tested wires and it works. it felt good to do it with good results..

with a new holly carb set to standard, it coughs and chokes, and pops when i step on it at low speeds..I KNOW..THE ACCELEREATOR PUMP well i looked and it IS squirting. is that sufficient info?

i got many recommendations from all of you last fall and i tried the thermostat, thinking it wasnt closing since the car didnt seem to warm up and required the choke for 10 miles in warm weather.!! i changed the thermostat and now for 3 times i cant get it to seal at the housing..!!!what gasket sealant should i be using.? maybe i should try another hobby..!!#@$$#@%$^%

the carb..my gut tells me something about the 'downshifting' not doing it early enough and coughing is due to wrong gear to pull it..make sense..?..

bill

Edited April 11, 2011 by claybill
change

[55 Fargo]

Well Bill, when things really "get to me" I really feel like packing in in too.

I have felt this on many times with my car, I even as of late will walk into my garage where she is kept, and think, I cannot even finish this ole girl the right way.

In my case money is always an issue, then time, and when some problem seems unsolvable I really feel twisted, and do not always think with a clear head or vision.

Okay, it may be time for a short break, put it on the "shelf", for a while, let your natural inclination to go at it again will reappear once you have had a break.

Prioritize, as you say, maybe to many projects, get rid of the ones, and work on the ones you want to keep in the long haul. You are 1 man, and only have so much time, money and ability, the latter you can hone as you go along. And don't be tooo darn hard on your self, this is a hobby, and should bring pleasure and enjoyment, at least a majority of the time.

You current trans, carb issues, something will come to light, it's only a matter of time, just step back, do some research, and use a process of elimination as Doctors do sometime on serious medical issues.

So put your feet up, don't lose any sleep (hard to do if your like me), and lets see if we can get your issues solved on this forum.

Best to you Bill............Fred Buhay

[maurice wade]

Bill, it sounds like you need to step back from your project for a few days. Relax, do something else, and forget about your old cars. If your like me you will start thinking about new ways to fix your old problems with the car. where do you live? Do you not have any "gearhead" buds that can help you out? Anyway don't give up, just give it some time.M

[greg g]

Have you checked for vacuum leaks??? Air leaking between the carb and manifold or maifold and heads. Does the car have a tach? If so at what rpms does it act up.

Where is your timing set? How do the spark plug look? Have you taken a vacuum gauge reading?

[P-12 Tommy]

Bill, I feel for you. I wish one of us could come and help diagnose it with you. It's rough when you can't see or hear what it's doing. It kinda sounds like timing or plug wires reversed to me, but I could tell better if I was there. Hang in there. I get frustrated too sometimes but it all seems to work out.

Tom

[Big_John]

Check the float level and make sure the fuel pump is delivering enough fuel.

As for the rest, it might be time to step away from the hobby for just a bit. Go relax a little, your car will still be there.

[Plymouthy Adams]

hey guy..when it get to this point..turn off the lights, shut the doors...get a hot cup of coffee..squeeze on momma or put in a good funny movie..in other words, chill...wait till you are in a better frame of mind...just put it all out of your head for a couple weeks..go to an antique store..grab an old piece of furniture..strip it...stain it..rub on some Tung Oil and get your mind totally clear of the car..

Edited April 11, 2011 by Tim Adams
spelling

[Don Coatney]

When Merle and I were talking this past weekend about fellow forum members we have met your name came up and Merle told me what a good guy you are. So quit whinning and fix the dam thing:D

[PatS....]

I don't think you are alone in the toss the whole works in the ash pile feeling. I have not had that for a while because I can't work on anything yet.

When I do get that feeling, for me it's time to do as Tim says...turn out the lights, lock the door and walk away. I come back with a better frame of mind, sometimes a week later or more, sometimes the next day.

I've also learned to tackle one thing at a time.

That's just me. And I'm on some pretty powerful meds right now

[oldodge41]

Relax, its just an old car. It will all work out in the end. Work on one issue at a time if you can. For the thermostat, make sure it is seating correctly in the housing, check your housing for bend or warp with a straight edge and replace as necessary. Make sure all remnants of the old gasket are cleaned off both surfaces. I normally don't use any sealant on these, just a good gasket. If it isn't shifting down quickly enough, is your kick down linkage properly adjusted, is it even there? Sometimes this gets left off on a swap but is very important to make your tranny function properly. As for the carb, a vacuum leak can cause what you describe with the new carb as well as what you said was going on with having to use excessive choke on a cold engine before. May not be at the carb itself. A bad vacuum advance diaphram on the distributor or any open or broken vacuum lines could cause a leak. Is the carb stock or properly sized for the engine, too big a carb can really kill an engine at low rpms. Vacuum leaks, timing, point gap are all good things to check. Pick one issue, tackle it with a clear head and post here for help.

[Young Ed]

Bill after not seeing my car for 5 months I brought it home yesterday. Today while rearranging cars in the driveway I hit my dakota with my p15! Dinged the fender a little and the stainless. Will be pulling the stainless tomorrow and practicing my stainless repair.

[mrwrstory]

Have a coupla beers and put it off til tomorrow. Works for me!

[dezeldoc]

Just hop on a nice pre war Twin Flex bicycle and go for a nice long ride!

[Greenbomb]

What everyone else said. Back off for awhile. And don't worry, it will be there for you; no one else is going to fix it!!!Nyuk, nyuk!

[JIPJOBXX]

Boy I have felt the same way with my old Dodge a million times but you know what with a little perseverance you will succeed as its only a piece of iron.

[thrashingcows]

The down shifting definitely sounds like a kick down linkage issue, or the amount of throttle pressure going to your tranny. This is VERY important for mopar transmissions, without it your tranny will burn up in no time.

Carbs can be tricky. I find the rebuilt/manufactured carbs are set up poorly at best. I usually pull them apart, fresh out of the box, and re-set all the factory specs. Then you will need to fine tune it to your specific motor.

But I too have been there many times...pull the cover over the car and walk away. You'll come back to it when the time is right. I once left a car for 3 years before I started working on it again....

[randroid]

Bill,

You know, it doesn't matter a hill of beans if I or anyone else has ever been where you are now because you didn't write those words to wish us an early "Happy Mother's Day". Is it supposed to make you feel any better if I were to tell you I feel my day was worse so it should make you happy to have somebody pi$$ in your soup?

I was trained to wrench on cars by a mechanic so capable that he'd get his way paid to races up and down the Pacific coast just to be in the stands, and he taught me to wrench immediately after I'd completed four years in the Navy; two years in schools and two years of hands-on practical factors keeping the ships' engines running. I was hot forty years ago and you could point to any part of a car engine and I could not only tell you how and why it did what it did but probably explain the physics behind it in layman's terms. I'm not bragging here so why did it take me twice on everything I touched on Pigiron before I got anything right? Frustration sets in big-time!

It's damnably frustrating to have the knowledge and tools to do a job right and the time and a clean area in which to do it only to turn around and find something in your mouth that shouldn't be there. That frustration becomes compounded too rapidly for a sane man to accept at times and this is the time of year when it's at its worst.

I started scraping paint off of Pigiron five years ago and have not even tried to start the engine since. Due to work schedules, money, household priorities, money, drastic downturns in health, and money, she's about twenty feet away from now demanding more of my attention. She's outside my window, under a tarp due to local politics (any K-Mart tarp is less of an eyesore to everyone than any '48 Plymouth more-door that isn't licensed) and awaiting for me to do some more Bondo between rainstorms so I can do some painting this year, but this is our first year in this house and we've talked long and hard about building a "Salsa Garden" so it took me four weeks to dig a garden that I should have finished in two days before I became crippled, and that's just frustrating!

We have to get the '84 Ford van through emissions by Friday or be fined $100 for non-registration. Other than it hasn't been run in over a year it has only 52,000 miles on it and should breeze through and I will take a stab at getting that done tomorrow other than running old gasoline. I tried so many ways to convince the State that the engine couldn't be run because of a broken transmission line that I got to be on a first-name basis with the Operations Director for Emissions for Colorado and everyone agreed that it was all BS and nobody was willing to do anything about it. Utter frustration!

There's some more but I won't get into it because any man has a limit to the amount of frustration he can take and still think of it as fun. It's our own damn fault that we get ourselves into these situations but that's the sort of people we are. We swear we won't start another project until at least two projects at hand are completed but it isn't like we go looking for more routes to frustration so much as they find us and we don't hide. Easy to get into the concept but that doesn't do tickety-poo for the frustration.

Bill, I evidently wrote the above thinking of mostly myself and I guess it worked because just by writing the words I find a big chunk of frustration going away. Maybe it said something to you?

Hang in there until the very end, Bro.

-Randy

[Andydodge]

Bill, couple of things re Holley carbs......what size accelerator pump does it have?........there are at least two, a 25 & a 50cc, the 25 cc is much thinner than the 50cc, for a street engine get the 25cc version, also check what accelerator pump cams you have, there is a pack of various ones you can get to adjust the pump ramp.........I have a 318 Poly in my 40 Dodge which uses a late style thermostat housing, there are a few gaskets around that look right but are slightly different, make sure you have the right one, clean both sides of the housing, make sure the thermostat is correctly installed.......dunno what else to say, have been playing with cars myself for 40 odd yrs........and sometimes "odd" is the operative word..........lol..........good luck.....andyd

[garbagestate 44]

I can think of 3 occasions since I got the 47 back in 07 that I felt like stuffing it with thatch and kerosene and throwing in a lit highway flair just before rolling it off a cliff. Like everybody in this thread has said, It's better to sleep on it.

[greg g]

OOOOOOO!!! such vivid imagery. A bit extreme perhaps. Another reason why folks should familiarize themselves with a good trouble shooting flow chart /check list.

As we found out last week withthe ignition wires causing the carburetion problem, sometimes its something simple and oft overlooked.

Cuz it couldn't be that simple could it???

Remember is all about suck, squeeze, bang, blow. If one's missing the others don't work.

[Tom Skinner]

Bill,

When I get to that point a few nights off reading always helps.

The best trouble shooting Book for your money is: Automotive Trouble Shooting For WW2 Wheeled Vehicles Volume 1 by Robert Notman.

Contact him at: notmanr7@comcast.net and get a copy @ $30.

When your done reading that you'll fell so confident you will go back to your Hobby with both Barrels. Good Luck.

Tom

Huntersville, NC

[JerseyHarold]

You'll have a better frame of mind after taking a break. My suggestion: Get away from the car and watch a few episodes of The Red Green Show (especially the Handyman's Corner segments) online. The laughs will really calm you down.

We had a perplexing transmission issue on a Valiant we bought to flip years ago. The kickdown linkage between the carb and trans was rusted together and didn't move properly. The car would stay in second gear until about 60 mph! WD-40 and a hammer fixed it. Take a look at the heat control valve for overheating. It might be stuck closed.

Harold

[thrashingcows]

I'm very lucky that my neighbor is a car guy and lives next to me. When I get so frustrated I can barely think straight I wander over and get him. He's figured out many a problem that my red hazing eyes just could not see.

[Joe Flanagan]

I can think of 3 occasions since I got the 47 back in 07 that I felt like stuffing it with thatch and kerosene and throwing in a lit highway flair just before rolling it off a cliff. Like everybody in this thread has said, It's better to sleep on it.

Oh, man. I want to be hanging out with you when you finally throw in the towel. This I don't want to miss. If I ever decide to do the same to my 49, I promise to include you. How's that for a deal?

[Plymouthy Adams]

and you have not lived till you have actually done just that....