Ok, this has been a long week . . . hopefully it ends soon. Last week, Ford Windstart quits starting . . . had to juggle cars . . . went up and I jiggled the right wire to get it to run. It starts fine till the day it leaves my wife at restaurant. I track it down to a goofy starter interrrupt thingy the dealership puts on . . . with butt-connectors. I fix that and think all is right with the world, Sunday the van won't start again. I yank the BS starter interrupt thing TOTALLY off and the van still won't start. Lovely . . . so we borrow a Ford Escape while I get time to work on the van. Today the Escape craps out on the way to work for my wife, she takes my other car and leaves me with two dead Fords and my Buick. I've gotta be to work for our annual picture and decide to hop in the Buick . . . it decides that it doesn't want to run above 60 mph and lays down . . . so I make sure it's got gas . . . it still won't run. I take it home. So then I go to O'Reilly's to get new starter for the van . . . I need a stud also since the one broke off . . . only one is in Cameron Missouri . . . or a week's wait from Ford . . . . . so I whipped out my welder and made my own. Once I had a new stud made it took me about 15 minutes to get the starter in. It took longer to bolt up the dashboard and everything that I had apart from the security system crap. Needless to say . . . I'm not having a good time with cars. I suspect the Buick (215 V8) needs a fuel pump . . . it's probably original and I've read that today's fuel + old rubber parts makes bad combo. Anyone else have an experience with an old mechanical fuel pump?
plate off the old mechanical one and go get an electric from your AutoZone dudes... 15 minutes tops. You can get a replacement later... I hate messing with shit that don't run, 'cause shurnuff, the next one you hop into will crap out as well. Good luck there camper!
Does that thing have any kind of fuel filter on it? That may be partially clogged. Also check your fuel line, it may be sucking air into it through a pin hole leak or maybe an loose fitting rubber hose with a loose clamp. Check your timing and points gap also, you might not be getting enough advance at higher rpm's ect ect ect... I could be wrong... but if the fuel pump works at a lower rpm I would think it would be OK at higher rpms also. I like electric fuel pumps too, but the cheap ones (Like from Holley) are LOUD and the quiet rotary ones are expensive, and you may need a pressure regulator. You probably need 4 to 6 psi with a carby. None of this will do any good if your carb is full of rust and junk. Just some thoughts from a neighbor... Tomo
Thanks guys -- electric one will probably get the nod from me. The car will run without a load, but once it's on the highway it just loses it on upper end . . . it used to lay down at about 80 mph. I need to change the fuel filter also, just to be double sure.
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