Progress!

[RobertKB]

Also, is the rubber hose between the fuel pump and the frame in decent shape. If not, they can collapse and cause a fuel shortage. This is a quite common occurrence.

Edited December 14, 2011 by RobertKB
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[JohnTeee]

Also, is the rubber hose between the fuel pump and the frame in decent shape.

Thanks Robert, that's a good suggestion. Hose is good and firm. I'll also have to check the tank end.

It looks like there is an inline filter attached tot he front of the fule bowl. That trype of filter is notorious for clogging quickly. I would get rid of that or change it for a new one, and then change it regularly.I had a section of metal line along the frame under the drives side door that was leaking, I removed a section back to solid tube, and replaced it with some flex line with an inline filter in it, I also have a filter between the pump and carb.

Also there is a screen in the fuel pump that can become clogged, between the sediment bowl and the inlet to the pump chamber. You may also have some debris in the fuel pump check valves which prevent the pump from achieving its proper flow and pressure.

Just out of curiosity, why between the pump and the carb, instead of before the pump?

Screen in the pump bowl looked good and the only thing in the bowl was the 'sludge' that had settled out of the fuel, leaving the remainder much more clear. There WAS crud in the filter before the pump and it's been replaced. Why am I having a nag that there is another one somewhere along the frame? I meant to look at that today.

Siphoned as much fuel as I could the other day and have it settling in 5-gallon buckets. I'll uncap those in a week or two and see if I can decant off the top and slowly mix it back in.

After I put the new fuel filter on the pump, I hooked up a plastic line to the filter and dropped the other end in a fresh can of fuel. Got the car fired up and it ran great with clean fuel. Go figure. I've blown out the line back to the tank and drained the last bit out of the drain plug. Pulled the fuel sender unit and found out why that wasn't working - it's frozen. I have two others that I'm going to test after I research that on the site. Looking through the sender opening I could also see the brown, goo sitting in the bottom that's causing my problems. Tank get's dropped Thursday and then to clean it out.

Cheers!

John

[JohnTeee]

Dropped the fuel tank after draining it and found it to have rusty goo in the bottom. Gave it several good rinses with soap and hot water and cleared some of the junk out. Still have some clean steel on the floor of the tank, but still have plenty of scale built up. Blew the fuel outlet out with compressed air and I don't think I have an oilite strainer any more; never found anything large enough to detect in the tank. Decided to take it to the local radiator shop to get chemically cleaned. They are going to clean it and send it out for coating in the inside. $140 and I should not have problems with the tank after this . . .

I'm tackling another common complaint with these old girls - the non-functioning fuel gauge. Two bolt sender had been replaced in the past, but was now a frozen solid unit. After searching the forums I decided to have a try at disassembling one of two old senders that no longer worked. Drilled the rivets and it actually looked pretty good inside.

(The resistance coil looks very dark, but is actually pretty clean and lighter colored)

I guess these things are open to gas sloshing about inside? There's a little not-a-rivet in the bottom of the bowl, that appears to be designed to allow fuel to flow back out. The old shellac around the coil base is mostly dissolved. There was little corrosion, but I gave it a good spray with electrical contact cleaner and gently brushed with an old toothbrush. I measure about 25 Ohms across the two terminals, instead of 30. The contactor makes pretty good electrical contact with the side of the bowl, but has a couple of jumps when the arm moves.

I did not find a lot of information on messing with the guts of these things. Found Tod's instructions for rebuilding single bolt units (however, J.C. Whitney does not appear to carry that replacement unit anymore). Did not find much about rebuilding the two bolt units. Other than cleaning up the contacts, is there anything else I should do before reassembling the unit?

Cheers!

John

P.S. I'm toying with replacing the cork float with a brass float out of a spare carb, or try the Ford float replacement I found in another thread. I think the cork has gotta go!

Edited December 20, 2011 by JohnTeee
addendum

[Jim Saraceno]

I just cleaned everything up on mine. When I put it back together I made the mistake of using a gasket made of synthetic material. It eventually rotted and I had to take it back apart and replace it with cork.

Why do you want to replace the cork float? If it looks to be in decent shape I'd leave it alone.

[Young Ed]

I've heard ethanol eats shellac which is what those cork floats are made of. I'd be looking for a plastic replacement while I had it apart.

[greg g]

JIf you put a newer type of coating on the cork, like urethane or clear coat, it should be more resistant tot he alcohol.

[Don Coatney]

I've heard ethanol eats shellac which is what those cork floats are made of. I'd be looking for a plastic replacement while I had it apart.

I thought cork floats were made from cork:rolleyes:

[Young Ed]

I thought cork floats were made from cork:rolleyes:

Haha I said that wrong. They are coated/soaked in it. So they are made of cork and shellac

[yourpc48]

If you look trough my posts earlier this year I had the same problems as you. For me the number 3 and 4 plug wires were switched. If I had seen this thread earlier I might have saved you some work. I also had the carb fill with sediment after starting to drive my car. I feel for ya.

This was from the second or third time I pulled the carb to clean it.

[JohnTeee]

Well, a rotten end of the year and some distractions kept me from getting things done, but finally got there.

Ryan and I had dropped the tank back in a while back and I was working on trying to rebuild a gas tank sender unit. Unsuccessful with the unit I disassembled, but a spare in a box seemed to work. Replaced the old shellacked cork floats with a couple of synthetic wine bottle corks, so will have to pull that in the near future and see how they are holding up (actually, I think I'll just drop one in a mason jar with gasoline and see how it holds up). Got it back in and filled the tank on Friday. Knew the line was bone dry, so we put gas in a bottle and poured it in the carb to 'prime the pump'. Fired right up. Went through about eight ounces of gas with nothing coming out of the fuel pump, before we realized the fuel line was disconnected from the pump. Attached that and things got to whizzing.

Went out for a drive and it was really hesitating on starts and experiencing little drop outs. Filled the gas tank (about 16 gallons total sound right? Must go check the specs up front on the site). Went back and checked the timing (new points and condenser recently) and had about 15° advanced. That might cause a bit of a problem. Pulled the vacuum advance, set it to about 4° and it ran much better. Still has occasional little hesitations, or drops, while driving, but had it on the Interstate doing 70 without any trouble. Still some troubleshooting to fine tune it, but it's back on the street.

Hope to get to the satisfied point soon, where I can drive it the 68 miles to work, once in a while.

Cheers!

John

Edited January 28, 2012 by JohnTeee