Journal Entry

Well it’s been pretty cold until recently and last weekend we were in Chicago for the swap meet so not much activity for a while. Having spent some time on the 77 yesterday in preparation for the upcoming endurance rally I spent some time today investigating the puking carbs on the 72. They were overflowing pretty much all the time.

I decided to remove the carbs completely this time and followed a friend’s advice of using a bungee cord to keep the linkage and settings together. That seemed to work quite well and the carbs came off without too much trouble. After checking things over and comparing front and rear carbs it looks as though the front carb wasn’t fully rebuilt before I got them. This is the one that was originally missing the float cover seal. I noticed that the rear carb must have had a new float installed (based on the color) and it also appeared to have had a new float needle. I am suspecting that the front carb got forgotten part way through the rebuild.

The float appeared to be fine on the front carb, already replaced from before, but the issue seemed to be the float needle. I played around with this for a while but the float needle was not consistently dropping down as the float moved. This is when I decided to replace the float needle using one from the other set of carbs I had. I then discovered that the brass chamber for the needle was not big enough for the plastic spring loaded replacement I had. I removed the float needle seat from the old carb as well and then noticed the fiber washer on the top of it. It was missing from the one I removed and I wondered if this was part of the problem as well.

After trying to set the float position I then reassembled everything and put the carbs back on the car. After connecting the essentials back up I turned the ignition on and waited. The pump clicked and then eventually stopped. Whoo Hoo, seems the puking was solved. I then connected everything up and things were still working so I went for a test drive.

The drive went quite well and the car was running more smoothly than before. Hopefully as a result of the float adjustments I had made. However, after a few laps near the house the engine sounded rough and I had a loss of some power so I quickly U-turned and headed for home. I didn’t make it without some issues!

The car was running but seemed to have no power. I pulled over and tried to nurse it along the shoulder as I was less than a mile from home. I managed to coast some of the way and got quite close until there was nothing left. I stopped and couldn’t see anything wrong and fired up the car again and got it started and it sounded a little better. I eventually coasted home and got it in the garage.

On checking the fuel flow at the carbs it was an inconsistent trickle – made sense with the symptoms but what was the problem? I removed the hose at the fuel pump and tried the pump and fuel was flowing fine. Odd, so I connected the hose back up again and checked at the carbs and the flow was restored. Not sure what was up but I’m guessing something was causing a blockage that moved itself. I now see the fuel filter much fuller of fuel than ever before so maybe it was a little blocked all the time and has now cleared itself? I guess my next test drive I’m going to have someone follow me just in case. Still, it’s starting every time and the fuel filter remains at the higher, fuller level so we will see.