So six months ago way back in October, I took Żuczek out to fill up his tank, get the stabilizer in him, and put him away for the winter. It was on that trip driving back home when he sputtered and died and I was left with having AAA come and tow him home.
I had tried to diagnose the problem but all I could come up with it was something related to fuel delivery so either the pump, the carb (which was new but generic) or something in the fuel lines/filter I had relocated to under the front of the new tank I installed. There was also the possibility that the inline screen in the tank was somehow causing the issue.
I had swapped out the generator style fuel pump that he had on him (with the 4.25″ push rod) and put the AH engine’s alternator style fuel pump on him with the appropriate 3.9″ rod but I still could not get him to turnover.
So I put him away for the winter, hoping to solve the problem when it warmed up.
Well… that day started today.
I got him up on stands and checked the fuel delivery from the tank to the tunnel. I could suck fuel through so no issues there. I could then suck fuel from the tunnel to the pump, but no matter what I did I could not get the pump to drive anything. I removed the pump and rod, regreased them, and reinstalled trying again but nothing.
It was then that my son came home and having another set of hands, I could try some other things that require 2 people.
I had a Euromax fuel pump I had bought for emergencies and tried installing that but we could not get fuel to pump.
I then went into the AH engine rebuild parts and pulled out the better quality Brosol one and installed it. We rigged up a line to isolate the fuel intake to a small container and turned the car over.
I was eventually able to get the pump to suck up fuel from the cup and into the carb. So… thinking it was just the fuel pump, we put everything back and got it to turn over a couple of sputtering times. I then noticed that the Cylinder 3/4 manifold boot was leaking so obviously there was a leak there large enough to perhaps cause the engine not to ignite, as well as leak fuel out. I reset it it and tightened the clamp.
No fuel leak this time, but no engine turn over.
So I have suck. I think I have squeeze. I seem to have bang. But not enough to generate blow.
So I happened to have a basic EMPI 009 clone brand new out of the box. I swapped out the generic distributor just to see if it was a true bang issue, since electricity was going to the distributor but there could always be a chance the internal electronic points replacement (a Pertronix Igniter 1) died. The results were pretty much the same, so I’m thinking that bang is not an issue since it tried to start and almost seemed to turn over two or three times.
That leaves squeeze, but I had already been out in the garage for 7 or so hours so I really didn’t want to go down that path yet.
Tomorrow I’m going to tackle it again with a fresh attitude.
I know that all the last minute attempts to diagnose things last October shifted the carb out of synch, and having to remove the distributor changed the timing so that could impact this, but no matter how small of increments both advanced and retarded we adjusted for, no full turn over.
Tomorrow at lunch I’ll try and put a new plan of attach together, checking the current and such.
He really feels like he wants to turn over but there’s just something I’m overlooking.