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Hi Joe, any progress on the Duchess?

(o{}o)

Experienced continued problems with "fluffing," JW. I tried some Stabil and that helped. I added 10 gallons of aviation fuel, that helped even more. But I finally took it in to a professional shop for analysis. It's my carburetor. Electrical is perfect, which made me pretty happy since I spent some time on that, cleaning up the distributor and adding new wires.

When I was trying to figure out the timing, I followed the book instead of common sense. The manual shows clockwise firing order, but eventually figured it should counterclockwise on my car. In the process however it backfired pretty loud a couple of times and may have caused a problem with the carburetor. The analysis was that the engine wasn't getting any fuel under stressful situations. The carburetor pump is sticking or something. Pumping the pedal helps. I've taken it out for an evening drives in the country without any real problem. Steep hills are touch and go, however.

I was reading (dangerous for me) that there is a spring associated with the carb pump that should be 1-1/2 in in length and maybe needs stretching if it's less than that. I'm going to order a rebuild kit.

Bruce (Abbott Instruments) finished my clock and it runs perfectly. Of course, that handy hole I got used to into the glove box after many months is blocked by the clock.

David Moe was at the Portland SWAP Meet this weekend with a large booth. Fun to see so many items I no longer need. Olson Gasket was there, too, so I ordered some gaskets to stop all leaks from pan and vicinity. I managed to get oil on my clutch plate. Since I sealed the back end of the pan by adding copper washers, it's much better, but in a lug it wants to slip, so I'll get a new plate from Gary Brinton, Prineville, Oregon.

At the show I was also looking for some items for my sons Joey (53 Buick Super sedan), John (65 Mustang convert and 62 Corvette) and James (61 Jag 3.8 sedan). Joey took some enhanced pix of the Duchess last visit here.

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Hi Joe, great to hear from you. I hope that between your post #337 and this most recent one, that you have packed the rear wheel bearings with grease and not driven them with oil as their only lubricant. Car is looking real nice.

(o{}o)

Thanks for the reminder, JW. I think I did after all those alerts at the time, but I can't remember now, so I'll remove the wheel and make sure it's greased, and also not leaking since I reused my seals.

CARBURETOR: A professional shop did a diagnosis and road-tested the Duchess, concluding that the carburetor is not pumping enough fuel to the engine when it's under stress, i.e. going up hill with pedal to the floor.

The car sputters, fluffs, give a burst of power, then fluffs again. I've learned to vary the pedal an 8th of an inch or so, up and down, close to the floor board in order to make it up my hill.

The manual refers to carburetor spring that should be 1-1/2 inches, and if not, if more compressed, one could have insufficient fuel. I was wondering if I could fix this myself.

My suspicion is that I damaged the carburetor with a couple of very loud back-fires, when I had the ignition wires set up wrong.

If you are saying to yourself...O, I know what that is. That's an easy fix.

Please reply.

The shop also installed the gaskets I bought at the swap meet for the oil pan and vicinity and sealed that doggone overdrive solenoid . Not a drop on the garage floor this morning.

Also I'd like to put in a plug for Les Schwab Tire Centers. If you've never brought your Packard there for rotation, brake adjustment etc, try it. Here's where they are in the west. I'm right at 5000 miles. They rotated, checked and adjusted the brakes and hand brake. $20.50. They worked on it over an hour.
http://lesschwab.know-where.com/lesschwab/cgi/index?design=default&lang=en®ion_name=Montana&mapid=US

SKIP TO BOTTOM TO SEE MY QUESTIONS.

I wanted to drive the Duchess over the coast range last weekend, but left her home because of the lousy performance under power stress. I didn't think it would be fun trying to get over those long hill climbs.

The shop had told me the carburetor "pump", the performance part, was the problem, so last night I looked up Stromberg carburetors in my Motor Manual.

The manual divided up the carburetor into different segments, with different parts associated with each segment such as Idle, Performance. The float level is mentioned a lot in diagnosing carburetors, but I didn't bother with it (didn't want to screw it up) because it's associated with idling and I don't have any problem with starting or idling.

I decided to remove the carburetor and have a look. I had left-over parts from previous rebuilds, if something was obviously broken.

I found that the leather on the piston that allows more fuel into the chamber was torn. I transferred the springs and retainer to an old, but ok, one and replaced it.

The performance was noticeably better on my drive to the gas station at 10pm with the top down, but on the way back, after the engine had warmed to normal (straight up), sat at the station, and restarted, there was still some "fluffing" like insufficient fuel going up my hill.

FUEL LEVEL CHECK
I'm going to check the fuel level during idle. I've never done this before. I'm supposed to start the car with the "horn" (the air cleaner?) on to prevent fire from potential backfires, then remove the fuel level plug of the Stromberg AAV-26 and ? Hope to see fuel coming out? See the bottom of the float? See the fuel at the bottom of that hole? (It never says.)

These are my questions:
What should I see while the engine is idling?
Should I pull back on the throttle and rev the engine doing this?
Should I see something different when I rev it?


If that doesn't look right, I'm going to open it up again tonight (usually takes me 4 times to get it right, as some may know) and adjust the floats.

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Joe, as a general rule, fuel should be just at the bottom of the sight plug hole, not running out and not out of sight. Easy enough to check with the engine idling at its normal warmed up speed.

(o{}o)

Thanks, JW. Of course, after the engine warms up and the exhust manifold is good and hot, I unscrewed the fuel level plug and gas started coming out. I used a rag to catch it, but I was a little shaky trying to get that plug back in.

I video'd the engine at idle.

So I need to set the float in the opposite direction I thought. Reduce the level, not increase it.

If it's starved for fuel, that doesn't seem logical to me, but not the first time.

The choke was set 2 notches richer than 0 (where the V and housing marker meet on the choke thermostat. I guess I'll go through that exercise, too.

Last night the engine ran great, even up hill, until it had a chance to sit at the service station, possibly heat up.

Video is at

http://www.mktx.com/joe/EngineIdle-desktop.m4v

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Hello Joe:

My 1941 160 Convertible Sedan has the same engine & carb as you have. When I first got my car back together I too was having some carb/fuel supply issues.

When the carb was professionally rebuilt the cleaning solution or ultrasound caused the brass float to be a little porous in a small area. This porosity caused the float to allow a small amount of gas to leak into the float and causing it to sink lower than normal.

Using a hair dryer to heat the float I could see where the leak was and with continued heating I was able to evaporate the gas inside the float. Then, using a soldering iron I "tinned over" the offending area area and re-installed. Has worked fine for the last 10 years.

You might want to run a check of the float while it is out.

Best, --Roger--

Thanks, Roger.
CARBURETOR:
I will definite check that out tonight when I open the carburetor up again and before adjusting the floats (bending anything) and report back.

RADIO:
The chrome faceplate broke and could not be repaired. There is someone who makes anything out of stainless. If I can't find one, that's the alternative.


Joe

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