Hope you all had a great thanksgiving. I have a question / theory that I came across yesterday and because neither myself, nor my pops (who came to visit for the holiday) are carburetor experts, he suggested I throw it out to you guys.
Him and I went out to tinker with the car and possibly continue the diagnosis of why she suddenly won't start, but cranks. We checked all connections and everything, did a top to bottom, and then tried giving her a start so he could see what was going on. So, I got in the car, tried starting her and she just cranked. He went under the hood and adjusted the flange on the carb and she started...roughly...but started....I rev'd her a couple times and then when he let go, she choked out. Now...that does say that the carb certainly seems to be in need of an adjustment..which could be causing the issue, however, he is the main thing we came across.
I'm aware that when you are holding the carb open and rev'ing her, you're going to get spurts of gas. However, when he was holding it open, and I rev'd her...he said gas was "flowing out and over" from the carb...like a lot of gas. overflowing up and out with each rev. Not a spurt, but alot. So we went back in and found some videos on carb adjustment and float adjustment to regulate fuel flow. It seems pretty technical, but I can probably figure it out with the proper spec sheets.
Now here's the theory that we came up with, but again, we may be way off base and I'd like your thoughts.
When I put the new carb in, I didn't do any adjustments...she ran fine. However as I ran her longer over the months, I know those old fuel lines, filter and tank were probably full of crap and clogged. She started running rough. It was getting fuel, but not cleanly or in the right amounts. Now that I have all clear and clean fuel lines, along with clean fuel and fuel filter, is it possible that the clear fuel flow is pushing too much gas into the carb and flooding it causing it to choke out? Hence the overflow of fuel? If thats the case then I assume, based on the videos I watched that I would need to not only adjust the carb settings, but I would also have to open an adjust the float inside to ensure that its not allowing too much fuel in?
That's our theory. Does that seem realistic and we're onto something? Or am I barking up the wrong tree? It seems like it makes sense...the car was running rough and stalling because of clogged lines and the carb was just managing to make it work enough to run. Now that there are no blockages and it has a clear path, its getting a pure flow and too much fuel is coming through to the carb causing it to flood and choke out.
Now again, this all may still be a moot point and it could be a head gasket. I was not able to do the compression test because I can't get her to start and stay running. So I am now backtracking to the carb as a starting point. At the end of the day, she is getting gas. She has spark. She has power. After all of the things I've done on her, I can only think of carb settings and head gasket as being the remaining culprits.
Anyway, pops and I wanted to see if anyone had thoughts on our hypothesis. I don't know much about carbs and or adjusting them, but I'm doing the research.
-PBR
