So after a few more hours working on this I figured out a couple of things, I think. While I’m still not sure what was keeping it from running a few days ago, I’ve now confirmed that fuel is getting from the gravity tank to the carb. Removed the fuel line and no obstruction. But then I found that, now the gravity tank was bone dry. I think the problem there is that when I took the carb apart and put it back together, there was a damaged gasket that I didn’t replace, here:

Without that gasket it has been slowly dripping fuel, which eventually dried out my gravity tank (thus why no fuel getting to my float chamber, to state the obvious).

I’ve order a replacement gasket set from straight-eight.com, so once that’s in I’m going to put it in and hopefully that will fix the slow drip - everything else seems to be doing OK now.

(BTW big kev, thanks for the tip I did check and there was no obstruction of the pinhole gas tank vent.)

Attach file:

---

  IMG_0552.jpeg (233.19 KB)

So just when you think you have it licked…

Since the last update, I took it to a car show and it did quite well - 35 miles of city driving that day without any issues. Then I didn’t take it out for a couple of weeks, and when I tried to start it up again…same problem. Frustrating.

The solution from before of cleaning out the carb jet didn’t fix it. So then today I finally had time to do a more in-depth cleaning. Completely took out the carb, disassembled all the components and cleaned what I could, reassembled everything…still wouldn’t start.

So then I thought to just add some fuel directly into the float bowl, and voila! It ran for…about 20 seconds which I assume was just long enough to burn through the fuel in the bowl.

So here’s where I’m at - I’m certain there’s fuel in the gravity tank. There was significant gunk in the bowl under the tank, so currently I wonder if the fuel line has become clogged. I know that would be a lot of gunk, but it doesn’t seem that the fuel is getting from the gravity tank to the carb. Unfortunately the bolt connecting the line to the gravity tank is fused pretty solid and will take a lot of work to loosen. Which may mean taking out the whole gravity tank too, which may not be the worse idea in any case as it seems there might be significant crap in there at the moment.

And seems like I need to start thinking about a longer term fix to this too given the ongoing headaches it’s causing.

So some further updates on this. Yesterday I removed the plug at the bottom of the carb jet and cleaned what I was able to with that removed, including the high tech solution of a paper clip to scrape away and remove any gunk from the spray tube. After doing this it started and ran very well. For about 20 minutes when it promptly killed again.

So after charging overnight, today I repeated the process but more thoroughly, also removing and much more thoroughly cleaning the spray tube. Also got inside the float chamber, removed the float and cleaned inside there, and also took out and removed debris that was resting at the bottom of the glass bowl below the vacuum tank. After doing that I ran it again and it went beautifully.

Obviously though it seems that there is some crud somewhere in my fuel system that I will need to get out. It feels like the next step might be to see if the fuel line from the vacuum tank to the carburetor is all clear (I attempted to remove this but I couldn’t loosen it at the screw where the line meets the glass bowl - will try again soon), and then check the vacuum tank itself for contaminants.

Also a question - has anybody ever attempted to add a fuel filter? It seems if one were to do this, the the right place for this would be above the fuel line, right after the bowl outside the vacuum tank. Is this even a good idea?

Thanks Pckrd 230 for the suggestions. For the moment I’m hopeful that it is nothing more than an obstruction in the carburetor that I might be able to fix this afternoon (see my post above). Still, I suspect that at some point the recommendation of this website may prove very useful - thanks for posting it!

Gar, your post is timely. I had a friend I know through the CCCA come by yesterday and help me take a look and run some tests. After priming the carburetor we actually were able to get the engine running - and running smoothly at that - for several seconds. Which made us suspect that we are in fact dealing with some sort of an obstruction in the carburetor, and not the distributor / coils / condenser I’d suspected. We plan to reconvene today to attempt exactly as you suggest in your step #2, I will let you know if that’s enough to fix the problem. Fingers are crossed…

I only use ethanol free - not abundant but still available if you know where to look here in Colorado.

TX Goat and Digger Dave,

Thank you both for your responses, these will be very helpful as I try to work through these issues. It may take me a few days before I can start trying these different suggestions, and I’ll let you know how things go, but at wanted to make sure to thank you both for your responses. Also Digger Dave, to answer one of your questions yes it is an updraft carburetor.

Hey TXGoat, thanks for the response. I have had fuel system problems in hot weather in the past, so that was actually my first guess, but this felt different at least from the vapor lock issues I’ve experienced. First it didn’t sputter and die gradually, but rather quite suddenly. And letting the car thoroughly cool down didn’t make things better.

Also, and I don’t know if this is dispositive, but fuel is getting to the float chamber at least. So from what you’ve said - unless you think that it might still be a fuel system problem - this is why I’d been suspecting an ignition problem.

I am of course totally open to the possibility that I’m totally wrong here so don’t feel bad if you think I need to be told so.

Hi Ernie, thanks for the note. I have also suspected coils and condensers since I’ve read exactly as you stated that these are frequent points of failure under hot and stressful operating conditions. Is confirming this something that someone as unskilled as myself could do?

As to the battery, the connections seem good and power is getting to (for example) the starter motor just fine, as it’ll crank strongly, but just doesn’t seem to catch, or occasionally fires for just a second and then immediately dies.

I initially thought fuel delivery, mostly because that’s the devil I kind of know, but the fuel does seem to be getting at least to the float chamber with no problem.