Projects The bucket of ugly! A de-uglifying thread...

Chip,
Do you have a fuel pressure gauge that is reading 3psi or 4psi, or do you have a dial regulator that you click to adjust? If it's just that one booster giving you fits, I have a pile of Edelbrock's I could rob a booster off of and send to you to try? If you've swapped everything else out, you could try that?

 

Chip

If you don't have one of these (no not the electric fan)you need to invest in one. You can't rely on those pressure regulators. I had one of those chrome adjustable ones and it kept swelling and reading wrong. I set it on 3# for the 97s and it was good for a while and then started swelling and my engine started running lean. I put the pressure gauge on and it read 1#. I turned it up to 6# and in a little while it was back to 1#. I took it off.

Gary

 

Well, as it turns out, I'm an idiot! Not the first time, mind you, probably not the last. Sir John Evans just gave me a call and helped me do a bit of math that in my Gin and Tonic addled brain actually makes sense. I have repeatedly said that I have DROPPED the float height to 3/8"... Duh, 3/8" inch is a smaller number than 7/16" inch! I've been raising the floats this whole time!!! I won't even go into the inner working of the dyslexic mind that makes this stuff happen, but I think I might have my answer! And a few less "been there done that" points as far as car guy stuff goes... Thank you John for not making it TOO easy on me!!!

It reminds me of a local story involving a long time hot rodder, a deuce roadster seat, and a diminutive wife. Beeno had been having problems since the car was built getting far enough down to be under the windshield in his roadster. He was about 6' 1", and his wife about 4' 11". So he pulled the seat out of the deuce, flipped it over and tied down a few of the seat coils to nestle himself below the windshield. Still too high! A week later when his wife finally rode in the car again, she complained of being so far down in the seat that she couldn't see out of the car. Since he still was sitting too tall, he pulled the seat again, flipped it over and tied the coils down a bit tighter. *&^%#@ still too high! The wife rides again and complains that now all she sees is the dash... I'll leave to you guys which side was being tied down when the seat was flipped over!

 

My pleasure son!!

 

Man, I feel SO much better about being a total idiot now!

 

That's funny right there

 

my Grampa often said : " If you want a helping hand, look to the end of your other arm"

 

Hey, FK;

Sorry, but I LMAO at your description, visualizing it. I've been that mad, but never got the results you did. . I did get to replace the *new* glass in my '32 5w ws frame, after I had carefully laid it on the workbench - you know, so's it somehow wouldn't fall over & crack... - & one of my younger brothers' cats walked along the wall & bumped a hammer off of the wall. Darned if the hammer didn't hit the w/s square in the center - w/o breaking the glass - bounce straight up, & then straight down, this time the glass shattered. & I was just out of reach, but able to see the whole thing in slow motion. Miserable glass was only ~ 2hrs old. ;( . It's sort of funny now, about 40yrs later, but I wasn't full of mirth & merryment then.

Hey, Chip;

It's beginning to sound as if you may have a borderline bad part - casting or machined. I can't remember from mine, if they have a small gasket/o-ring at the joint where the booster joins the carb body. I think it's odd that only one side drips. Maybe a hairline crack that doesn't seal near or on the booster? I agree w/steel rebel, on the bottom of the tank outlet if it's higher than the carb they can be a pita, & I also think the seat isn't sealing correctly. They should handle some small pressure. Uhmmm... btw, does your tank have a (working both ways) vent on it? Warmth in the unvented tank will create a lot of pressure, on top of the fuel volumes' weight, that even a good seat won't seal. If you do, setting the float lower by at least an 1/8" might be a good test. Oh yea, maybe lowering your fuel pressure down to 2lbs, or even 1lb, as a test to see if it eliminates the drip. Since it ran great w/o any pressure, I'm leaning towards on of the last two things. Will be interesting to find out what it is/was. .

FWIW.

Marcus...

Geez, I type slow...

 

Hey Marcus, It turns out that the biggest problem was the idiot doing the calibrations! Read m y post from about 5 posts up and you'll see what I mean... I'm pretty sure John nailed it.

 

Hey, Chip;

I saw that *after* I posted my ideas. Which is why I said I type slooow. . That & I forgot to refresh the thread prior to hitting "send" button... . Maybe next time... .

Did Johns' idea do the trick? I do hope that solves it.

Marcus...

 

Not sure quite yet. I got so mad this afternoon, that after putting the carb together for the 12th time and having it not happy AGAIN, at about 5:00 I went in the house and made a giant Bombay Sapphire and tonic with about half a lime in it. we're talking about 32 ounces on this one, so decided that it wouldn't be good evening to work on stuff or moreover road test my findings... Remind me to tell you guys abou the last time I drank too much and decided to work, then decided my Plymouth "really needed to be a convertible"... In my defense, El Polacko and our buddy Tom were at hand egging me on a bit, too.

 

Hey, Chip;

A *whole* half a lime, huh? Sure that isn't too much... ?

Story time's a'wastin', . & we're a'waitin'... .

Still, now *might* be the perfect time (& condition) to do those "weirdo" drawings you've been wanting to do. .

Marcus...

 

You can eliminate almost all problems simply by tugging on each crimp you make to see if it will pull loose.

I find that about 1 out of 30 of my crimps are loose. That's enough to cause problems down the road when you have a couple hundred connections. That's about 6 bad crimps I've eliminated and it only takes a second to do.

 

Yes dad I do that and I have had it happen two or three times on the same crimp. I'm sorry I probably don't have the proper end or the proper crimper and yes I have used inexpensive wire ends and sorry I have had to dab a little solder on them at times, but still I have never had a soldered wire break or come loose and have had to solder some of mine and others crimps before they made contact. But then I'm only human and I will confess I have used Bondo to skim a surface that I couldn't get just perfect and I have had to color sand paint jobs I have done because they didn't flow just perfectly and some of my welds needed to be ground a little when I run out of one stick and have to start a new one over the last but then I haven't worked a lifetime in any of those professions.

I know you are giving great advice I just don't want any back yard builder such as I to think that they are doing something wrong if they have to put a little solder on a joint that doesn't crimp just perfectly.

 

I just read through the last 3 pages, doing a little catch up. As I read the 'dropped it to 3/8...' I thought to myself 'isn't 3/8 less than 7/16?'. A guy's gotta laugh at himself now and then. More than once has my wife come out to the garage to see me taking something apart that she had watched me put together earlier. I always respond with 'I'm tricking myself again'.

 

Bombay Sapphire? What about Hendrick's? Almost any bad day can be brightened up with a little G&T!

 

Bombay Sapphire... There is no substitute. And yes, a gin and tonic can make the worst day much, much, brighter!!! It's also very healthy too! I figure that with all the limes I have consumed in my life, I will never get scurvy! Malaria? Ha! My quinine levels are super human! After all, that's why the drink was invented - to get the British army regulars to drink their Quinine in colonial India.

 

It sounds so ridiculous now that I sit here and reason it out. What makes it even more ridiculous is when I try to explain what flipping something over to measure it does to me. Suddenly high goes to low, low goes to high, cats and dogs sleeping together, the end of humanity as we know it.

I wasn't being funny when I mentioned that I am dyslexic. It's some thing that I have dealt with all of my life. For many people it manifests itself as the inability to read. That is the one most of us know about and hear about everyday. With me, I had such a hunger for reading at such a young age, that I compensated for it and never really knew it was a problem until I was in my teens. Writing is something that is incredibly hard for me to do, whereas I find typing much easier. What's toughest is actually not the physical part of writing as much as making what is in my head come out on paper. The other that KILLS me is direction. Not so much North, South, East, West, in that respect I am way ahead of most. But, orientation is always a major headache for me, up, down, sideways, etc., especially when combine with a precise measurement of some sort. One of the weird-assed side effects for me though, is that I can read upside down and backwards without skipping a beat, and at one time I could write out sales slips in my businesses upside down and backwards which thoroughly freaked sewing machine customers out. Enough about that stuff though...

 

And from my neck of the woods! Nice car! I should show this to Hemi Deuce, he probably knows the car.

 

Exactly what I thought you would say! I know it was still up there in the late eighties, as it was featured in Street Rodder in '87 or '88 or so, but not exactly recognizably. At that time it was yellow with wire wheels and lots of trinkets. If you really squinted, you could see the bones of the car.

 

Well gang, lucky 13? 13th time I went into the carb and I'm much happier. It's still not perfect, but much, much, better. I set the float height to 1/2", as at one point it had been at the 7/16" height and problems continued. It now has a much crisper idle, lots less exhaust smoke and is generally better. What is confusing me though is the drivers side idle mixture screw is still not responding, were as the passenger is. I have blown through the idle passages multiple times and watched it all come out of the passages in the primary bores, so I am a bit perplexed still. I'll keep at it and let everybody know what's up.

 

Any posiblety that the throdele shaft is twisted just a little=it would have the disk/plates open more on one side vs the other=this will mod vac pull on one side at idal.? and mess up adjuster screw setting on one side.

 

^What he said. If you pull the carb off the intake and flip it over, what does the transfer slot look like in proportion to the sealing surface of the butterflies? I would bet it's tweaked. Or, for some reason, your idle air bleed on the one side is way smaller than on the other or something weird like that. It's gotta be something pretty significantly different on one side of the carb compared to the other.

 

Nope, I just went out and checked that right now. Both butterflies are showing the same amount of light around the blades.

I backed down on the curb idle, and dialed a touch more advance into things and it seems to be a bit happier at idle. My thoughts were that if the idle was cranked up enough it could be very well uncovering the transfer slots and rendering the idle circuits unusable. Better, but still no real reaction on the driver's side.

 

What style intake are you running? Single plane or dual plane? Is there any for-seeable reason the intake could have something to do with it (vacuum leak or bad PCV valve on whichever ports are being fed by the driver's side mixture)?

 

Look at the Edelbrock owners manual online. I found some info on page 12 about "Long Duration Cams", if the idle screw is too far open due to low idle vacuum the metering rod springs overcome the vac and go full rich. Plus they said the high air flow in the primaries causes the boosters to DRIP at idle. You helped it when you slowed the idle speed after you added some timing. When you change the metering rod springs make sure the rods are the same number, the manual has all of the specs listed by carb number.

 

That's an idea John Evans and I were kicking around tonight at our local cruise night. I'm going to jump out and check it out right now. Oh, a big HI! To Bob, who has been lurking on this thread for a while now and introduced himself tonight out at 35th ave. and Northern... Start posting sir!

 

I'd also take another good look at the idle air bleed on that side. I thought it had a stock cam in it?

 

Check out this scoop!!!

 

OK devils advocate on the aircraft end. Why do cannon plugs use soldered in wires that go into and out of the other side of plugs pins. Why not crimps there also. I know because I spent may a night upside-down in a cramped cockpit soldering wires into the pin backs.