I swapped out the Autolite for the ol’ Edelbrock yesterday, and what a relief to have a working carburetor again. The motor fired right up, and settled into a nice idle. I’m not the greatest tune-up guy in the world, but I re-set the idle adjust screws, checked the timing and went for a test drive.
So far, so good. A hot start 15 minutes after the drive was normal. Ninety minutes later, the car started as if cold. (That is, on key-turn.)
Nice.
Aside from the powdery crud and varnish in the carb, I noticed that the check valve under the accelerator squirters was stuck. It’s hard to say for certain, but I think the failure in that circuit is what lead to the starting issues—pretty sure it was completely congested.
I’ll need a few more drives before I’m fully satisfied that this is the fix, but now I’m confident enough to put the car back on the road. We are moving to a new house 40 miles away, so the first order of business is to get the car to its new location under its own power.
Despite being close by, the new town gets much hotter in the summer. In swapping the Edelbrock back in, I left off the phenolic spacer I was using. I originally installed it while struggling with fuel delivery issues caused by a crushed fuel line. Fuel starvation symptoms are much like vapor lock, thus the spacer. Whether or not I really need it, the coming summer months will tell.
Not a minute too soon; congrats!
lol on my 64 I put a Edelbrock and a Aluminum Manifold best thing i have done
I have to think that what few Autolites there are still out there were taken off and discarded for a reason. Unless they’ve been machined back to spec, most must be as bad as the one I got. I’m staying aftermarket.