Hey folks,
well, Dorothy, my old '54 wouldn't start for me a coupla Sundays ago. Annoyed about it, because it was a sunny day and I was really pumped up (not a great choice of words) to take her for a nice ride in the sun, when she doesn't start on me.
Part and parcel of the whole game no doubt. Meaning, there are gonna be days like these and I just have to say well, this comes with owning an old truck/car whatever.

Anyway, no start. Engine turns over nicely. Cranking fine. Then she fires up, runs like it's missing 7 1/2 cylinders. Chugs away for a few minutes. No power. Plant the foot, she stops, starts, chugs, stops. Then doesn't start. Still eager to fire up, but nothing happening. Spark looks fine. Checked the fuel.

Filter looks nearly empty when it always shows full. And then I notice how dirty the fuel filter is. I put a new one on there recently and she has only put about 500 miles on the filter. Anyway, changed the filter, fired her up.
No start.
Suddenly I see a great mess of something in the new filter.



Fortunately, I had another new filter. I must have bought a heap of them from ebay in China. I think you can get like 100 for 17 cents.
But rather than waste 0.2 of a cent on another filter, I figured this meant serious rust issues in the tank.

I had only cleaned it out last year, so I didn't think it could possibly be that bad. Anyway, better to be safe than sorry as they say. So, I whipped it out and had a gander.
Seemed pretty reasonable. I mean there are some signs of rust in there, but nothing that seemed really bad.
I have poured about 12 litres of white vinegar in the tank and have let it sit for just under a week. Went back to the garage to check it out and guess what!
The tank had melted all over the concrete!
Hey, just kidding! Making sure you are still awake! Nah, came up a bit better. From here I will put some bicarb in there and slosh it around and then a bit of metho to absorb any water and we should be right.

It now appears, after checking everything, that I must have caught a bad batch of fuel because I just filled up the day before and drove it home.

Before I ripped the tank out, I must have made my mind up that the pump was not working properly, so I ordered a new pump (Cheap Carter pump- this is a Chevy by the way). It's under warranty and the shop says they will take a look at it. Although, looking at the condition of the tank and not finding anything horrid in there, I am leaning towards bad fuel.



What probably happened was the bad fuel went to the pump (which did not have a filter before it) clogged the pump up and then to the filter (which I have fitted before the carbi)

I could test the old pump by putting a bit of fuel in a tin and manually pumping it through.

Also noticed, when I took the fuel line off, there is a decent kink in the steel line



And that can't be helping things, either.

One of the things that really surprised me was the quality of the rubber fuel line we have these days. I bought new rubber hoses for the fuel at our local auto store and when I went to check them they were showing signs of fatigue beneath the hose clamps. Tiny splits in the rubber. These wouldn't be helping, either. Ironically, I stuck some old (and possibly original) rubber line in the thing that looked much better than the new stuff.

Putting it all together tomorrow. Hopefully will be back on the road as the sun is beckoning!

Peter

 

I avoid getting gas if the tanker is filling the underground tank because it stirs up all of the silt in the tank (this from an ARCO tank truck driver when I worked there). That you can see. But what you cannot see is if the tank is low. Under those circumstances, it is possible to suck up silt from the bottom of the tank. Pop quiz. When was the last time you saw them clean the underground tanks at you local station. Hint: never!

Later!
Mr. Ed

 

That's true, Ed.
What DOES happen when the inground tanks get so full of gunk? Is there a rule which says tanks have to be cleaned out if they are X amount of years old. Interesting point.

The old truck is firing up okay again. Just have to find time to drive her. Aint it always the way?