Month: March 2012

Popped open the hood this morning, 14 year old son in tow, ready to pull the plugs and turn the motor over by hand–testing to see if there’s a bind or something else horribly wrong deep inside the engine.

Pulling the plugs, we noticed a pool of gasoline on the manifold. Had the aforementioned son crank the motor for a while (something he just loves doing) and discovered gasoline geysering out the vents on top of the carburetor.

This turned out to be very good news. Not only was the gas pooling on the outside of the engine, it was also pouring down the throat of the carb. When we turned over the motor by hand with the plugs out, two of the cylinders barfed up a couple ounce of gas on the power stroke.

The “sticking” I noticed in starting was almost certainly the starter trying to overcome a cylinder full of liquid gas, which just doesn’t compress well.

As for the fuel geyser, the solution is a fuel pressure regulator and a double check of the float levels in the carb–simple enough and there’s plenty of time before the new ignition parts arrive.

Two other mysteries were put to rest: hand cranking the motor over to top dead center, we discovered the timing marks, long hidden under rust, with a bright light and some sandpaper. Also, we were able to determine that the transmission is lots older than the car (1962 or earlier), but the starter and flexplate (the big ring that the starter gears engage with) are from a 65 or later car. An odd, but workable combination.

I know I said I would tackle the ignition system before trying to fire the t-bird up, but with the fuel system all new, I couldn’t resist. And, in fact, the bird fired right up, ran for 30 seconds or so, then slowly sputtered out. More attempt to start it resulted in flooding and an odd moment or two when the engine ominously seemed to “stick.”

 

Well, crap.

I popped of the distributor cap and–imagine my surprise–the pickups were encased in rust. The rotor and cap were not in much better condition. Under the rust, it looked like the pickups were held on by nuts (or maybe screws. Or maybe both). They turned fine, but didn’t come loose.

The distributor on the car is an MSD Billet. Pretty pricey when new, but now fit for the dust bin. And yes, a new Accel distributor, coil and wires are on the way as of tonight.

As for the strange “sticking” issue, I’m going to pull the plugs tomorrow and turn the engine over by hand to see if there’s a bind in there. Hopefully, it has more to do with a mis-matched starter and flexplate–lots cheaper to fix than pulling the engine apart (not that there’s not some appeal there, mind you.)