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Ha! Shes back on the road again. Had a shake down cruise today. 20 or so miles. Died on the way home. Fuel pressure was at 0psi.  I jacked it up and adjusted the fuel pressure up to about 2.5 / 3.0psi. Fired right up.

Couple more kinks to sort out. 4th gear is hard to find. I'll adjust the shifter a bit.

Super exciting to see it on the road again.

 

I have a fuel pressure regulator back by where the hard line exits the pan.  While the car was down this winter I installed a full stainless hard fuel line setup from airkewld.com.  It came with a nice pressure gauge. The fuel pump is one I picked up from Amazon. It was the same pump that CB and Summit sell for nearly 2x the price.

Off...

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On... 20180707_181027

Yeah, it was like 93 today. Hotter than I'd like. The cooler came on which was nice to see it working.

Super grateful to see the car going again.

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Last edited by TRP
Robert M posted:
*LongFella posted:

Can you screw the gauge to the left more?!?! We need to read it without tilting our heads!!!! Amateur...

Having it in focus would help us too.

I thought you guys were drivers? Big red arrow is straight up = good. Easy to read from 1 foot away. Easy to read from 15 feet away. 

Last edited by TRP

Maybe a stupid question?

If you bought the pump from Amazon, I'm guessing it's the Carter. This pump is self-regulated at 3 to 3.5 pounds. Adding an adjustable pressure regulator is adding complexity to what should be a simple system. I'd remove the regulator completely.

My 2 cents.

But glad you're back on the road......

You are 100% correct. The regulator was a hold over from when I had the Solex/Kadrons. Removal is on the agenda today.  I also need to put a general clean on it.

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Took that photo last weekend at a local brew place. Notice how high the rear end sits now? I adjusted it with the adjustable spring plates. Need to lower it a titsch.

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Question for the weber experts!

Car is sluggish off the line. Like its loaded up or bogging down. Coughing and spitting and then it clears up. High RPMs in first gear it starts to miss and pop. High RPMs in third gear (4300l4500) the motor starts to miss and break up.

This is all after a clogged idle jet. Maybe some crud in the main jets? Too rich? 

Last edited by TRP
DannyP posted:

Maybe a stupid question?

If you bought the pump from Amazon, I'm guessing it's the Carter. This pump is self-regulated at 3 to 3.5 pounds. Adding an adjustable pressure regulator is adding complexity to what should be a simple system. I'd remove the regulator completely.

My 2 cents.

But glad you're back on the road......

Just to loop back on this...

I pulled the regulator and found that I would get 4 to 4.5 psi. Put the regulator back in and dialed it to just at 3. The pressure gauge will read 0 from time to time. Manufacturer says to 'burp' it with the little rubber plug on the side of the gauge. Seems silly but it works.

The next bit of info is embarrassing... I share only because we are all friends here.

I figured out why the car kept dying while driving! Symptoms were that the car would die after about 15 minutes of driving. Every time it would die, it would happen at idle. I knew the car was warm/hot because I could hear the fan running. I figured it was vapor lock (0psi on the gauge). Figured out there wasnt a problem there with the burp thing. Then I thought maybe it was the coil. I replaced that. Same issue. Car would die after a bit of driving. I figured it had to be the electronic ignition in the megaspark. I put a call into CB to see what we could do about a replacement.

About this time the car developed a clogged idle jet. I knew I needed to chase that down so I went to yoga and practiced my downward praying mantis dog maneuver. I found the little bastard. #2! Haha. Cleaned it out and went to putting everything back in order. It had been a while since I had checked the carbs so I figured I'd check everything. Finicky ignition or not... the car still idles like a champ and runs well for about 10 minutes. I took it for a quick burn to warm it up. Came home and went about getting into resetting the caeb. I was fiddling with the Sync Linc and getting ready to install the snail when I heard the fan click on... and then the car died. So close.

                  *** wait a minute ***

The fan was running each and every time the car died. Could the fan be killing the motor? I unplugged the fan power wire and tried to start the car. Sure enough. Car fired right up.

*** But Ted, why did this just show up recently? ***

When I put the trans in I moved things around a bit. I moved my oil cooler to the rear of the right fender. When I wired in the fan in it the new spot I grabbed 12v off the ... (don't judge me...) coil. Here is the issue... When I was wiring it up, I found 12v by turning the ignition on (car not running) and used my test light to find 12v. I found 12v on the top side of the coil! And and open spade?! Perfect! Why hadn't I done this before?!? (Stan, Gordon, Al, Danny, and Anthony are all coming to take away my tools.)

So? What's the problem? 12v + on the coil changes to - when the coil collapses to deliver its spark. I knew this. I even had a voice in my head saying not to use the coil for power.

How does that make the car die? When the thermostat switch on the fan reads 180 it completes a circut and needs 12v to power the fan. If that 12v is being delivered to the fan apparently it can't charge the coil.

Lesson learned. Now I am left to track down this miss at 4500 rpms (while under load) and the super soggy / loaded up / rough transition while coming off idle in first (at a stop light, etc.)

Lesson learned. 

Dedicated 12v to the coil is a must as you discovered a voltage drop will kill the electronic ignition op. OEM Volkswagen the only thing that was connected to 12v coil was the keyed ignition wire and the remote "Bakalite" fuse housing wire for the backup lights.  Similar follies the time I couldn't get a fresh engine to run but would crank ok, finally in frustration I pulled the engine and took it to the builder, of course  with much embarrassment,  it started right up in an engine stand and I knew instantly what the problem was,  a bad engine to chassis ground connection  ...and so, we learn.

 

A good place to 'grab' 12V at the back of the car is the B+ connector on the alternator, which is connected via heavy cables back to the battery (via the starter). Just remember to use an inline fuse with whatever you connect there, as there ain't none twixt there and the battery.

Idles good, runs good at moderate revs, breaks up at high revs 'under load' (which probably translates to when you've got it floored).

Have you ever set the float levels in the carbs to spec? (Hint: let Tony do it for you.)

 

Keep your tools in place - we all do something like this from time to time.

Mitch wrote: “A good place to 'grab' 12V at the back of the car is the B+ connector on the alternator, which is connected via heavy cables back to the battery (via the starter). Just remember to use an inline fuse with whatever you connect there, as there ain't none twixt there and the battery.”  (My italics)

If you don’t use a fuse on anything connected to the B+ terminal, you have a potential there for 600 amps to ground, turning the wire you’ve connected into a lightbulb filament if it gets shorted to ground.  It’ll go up so fast there won’t even be much smoke.  

 

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