Lions, and tigers, and sticky carbs, oh my!

Update: I took the car for a run to one of our favorite seafood places for some carry-out, including a blast down the local twisty road, and it is doing much, much better. It cruises great, idles smoothly, and accelerates well, although there's still is bit of missing and popping on slow deceleration from high-speed cruise. I will chalk that up to whatever garbage I picked up in the gas. C'mon Dry Gas, do your stuff!

One interesting note, the sticky idle problem was nonexistent. I don't know if temps were too cool, or if I may finally have made a meaningful change in... something. That's the scary part. At this point I still don't know what the problem was, or what appears to have fixed it. I guess I'll be happy with small blessings and keep my fingers crossed.

Lane. You mean we have to wait until next summer to find out if it's fixed? I'm still betting it was just the replacement of the carb to manifold gaskets, like it was on mine.
Troy

No, I should know within a week, as I will be on the interstate for 4 hours next Thursday going up to Asheville for the Smokies cruise. That should be plenty of heat soak.

The gaskets may have helped, but I even saw some binding with one carb off of the car, and it didn't go away immediately after changing gaskets. So to summarize, I:
1. Cleaned and lubed the carbs with Seafoam Deep Creep,
2. Replaced the gaskets,
3. Fine tuned the new throttle linkage, and
4. Tuned and synced the carbs.

Spent today detailing it for next weeks trip, and am now too tired ( and sore) to go for a cruise. My recliner is a bunch more comfortable than the Speedster seat.

When you get ready to "junk" the Webers, call me...... ;-)

Lane-

You need new seats.

Drive 'em.

I dunno, Stan. The Speedster seats are fine for driving, but not a good place for napping. They don't recline, and they don't have a foot rest. Oh yeah, and sleeping in 'em isn't advised - at least when the car is moving.

Sure, detail the hell out of your car and when you leave you'll get about to I95 before the front of the car'll be coated with Love Bugs... 8>(

Yeah but he should have his bra on. The thong is optional.

Gee Bill, I can wear the thong if you want me to :-)

just don't wear it backwards...it's wicked uncomfortable

The voice of experience?

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lane.......

In a thong.......

Boy........

The idea of THAT sure makes it shrivel.......

Hmmm... Carbs to thongs, huh? Took longer than I expected, actually.

Wellllll...you did say you won't know if the carbs are gonna stick till you heat soak them up good on the way to Asheville.
Soooo, what better way to pass the time till then.


~WB

Lane

I am sure you remember my carb issue at Carlisle. When we stopped twice in the rain on the way home and removed them again we still limped home and were probably running on two cylinders going across the Bay Bridge.

What was it? Well, all of the o-rings on the jets and emulsion tubes broke down over the winter and disintegrated into teeny little pieces that blocked the transition ports. All gas sold today is bad gas.

And these are Dells.

Hope you get those Webers straightened out. We finally did.


PCH

I am not the brightest mechanical buld in the bunch, so I must take it to a mechanic. After a tune up and only after I drive it for about 15min does it start to really hesitate and loose power. The RMP's jump all over the place and at times at nearly red lined. Any ideas? Timing, carbs, fuel line? I would love to start doing it my self and save some labor, but I really dont know where to begin on this one.

Paul: Yep, I remember.I am fortunate in that there is a place I can get ethanol-free gas, when I happen to be near it. A product called "Star-tron" has been recommended to me as a way to reduce the effects, but I haven't used it enough to have strong evidence. Seafoam engine treatment also says it fights the effects of ethanol. I'm afraid we'll be fighting this for a while, as they government wants to increase the percentage in gasoline. Lovely.

Glenn: Holy carp! That really sounds bad. Not sure what would bring on that sort of combination of symptoms. Maybe they left your distributor loose after timing it, and it rotated on you. You could also have garbage in the fuel that clogged stuff. How about some specs on your engine? Anyone have any ideas?

Glenn, I'd begin with a beer, and then put on a thong. Then give us some information on the size, age, and equipment spec. on your motor. Then describe the way it ran before this "tune-up", and then how it runs now. But describe the idle, then with slow driving, then when you give it full throttle. With more info, you might get some answers. There is just not enough info to figure this out from your post.

For the "bad gas" I add Sta-bil Marine Formula at each fill up. It's supposed to help minimize the destruction of our dinosaur engines by today's ethanol.

Ok, here we go, I am running a 2007 VS 1915cc, dual Kadrons with 18,000 miles on it. It all started about a month ago when it was hard to start and I figured it was time to get it tuned up. After the tune up, started great, but after the engine was run, could be 5 min., could be 45 min. but I did notice the hotter it was outside the quicker problems started. Problems being, I would be driving just fine at 65-70, then it starts to hesitate, then more and more losing power, until by the time I get to where I'm going it is jerking, almost like it being choked out. Then if I turn it off it won't start till I let it sit for about 20 minutes.
I took it back to the shop, but still the same thing. I am not sure if they know what they are doing with this engine.
And Will, I prefer a G-String over the thong.

(this probably should be its own thread, but...)

sounds it might the classic problem of an overheated fuel line. the routing of your lines should be away from the hot parts of the motor & exhaust.

Do a forum search on "vapor lock" & you'll find you're in good company... :-)

Glenn, the G-String is your problem! Not the one you wear,but the black rubber one that carries the Gas to your carbs. I think that one of your gas lines is getting very warm and creating vapor lock/gas starvation problems. In our cars it is very common for the routing of the gas lines/hoses to be less than perfect. This is a good time to check the routing of them for chafing, proximity to HOT engine parts, and if my car was a couple of years old and had that many miles I would replace all the hoses with nice new ones and some fuel injection hose clamps. Good luck!

I heard my name mentioned. Can't figure out why, tho, 'cause I got no clue about what the foo is going on here. [It ain't rocket science, so I am clueless . . .] But I like the ideas for doing a super cleaning, and keeping the ethanol in the gas tamed down. Rotted O-rings fouling the passages is TOTALLY bogus. One thing that came to mind in all of this is the extra springs Lane has added. I'm not sure this is a good long-term solution, as the throttle plate rods bear on the Al carb body, or maybe a bushing, and that bearing will wear much faster the higher the force on it from the springs. I'm just sayin' . . . Better you should get whatever is creating the stiction eliminated and try to reduce the spring force. I have heard of throttle plates being off center and causing all sorts of troubles, and this one could be due to that. In that earlier case I read about the thought was it was built that way, and not that it got that way by itself. And as a further note, the return spring on my 44s is attached to the side of the car and pulls at a good angle to the shaft, which is how JPS builds 'em. So Lane: is this fixed? or are you still with some symptoms?? This is one heck of a thread, complete w/ thongs . . .

Saw a funny joke the other day: two gals are picking over thongs in a lingerie(?) shop and the one says to the other: "Yeah, I tried on one of those last year, and haven't seen it since."

...you mean thong like THIS...

Do those Kadrons have choke plates?

OMG... I will, um... avoid comment on that picture.

Kelly, I have removed the extra return springs for now, but carry them with me this weekend. I am down to the normal one built into the carb, the small spring in the bellcrank, and the one from the carb throttle linkage to the air filter housing. That's how the engine was delivered, and that's what I'd like to stick to. I should know whether it's fixed by this time tomorrow. If it still binds a bit, I have set it up where I can have an extra one off to the side connected to the body. If necessary, I can add another sprint between the carb linkage and air filter. If the extra ones are needed, though, it means the problem is still there and will eventually worsen. In that case, I'll ring up Mr. Thraen.

I've got a BIG-assed spring from an old screen door.

Ya want me to drop it off?

Just in case?

Nah. After that picture I've have all of the "big-assed" that I can take without throwing up.

UPDATE: Arrived in Asheville after a 4.5 hour trip that included 1 gas stop (getting much better mileage now), 1 lunch stop (Bojangles, speaking of gas), no rain whatsoever, clearing skies, and a car that will now idle smoothly at 1000RPM even after a long interstate slog. I averaged 70-75 in temps up to the low 80s. Plenty of heat soak and no throttle binding/sticking. I'm knocking on every piece of wood I can find, but the problem appears to have gone away - at least for now.

I'm still experiencing an occasional misfire that I am pretty confident is related to crud in the gas. It's rare and intermittent, and I expect the problem to resolve itself over time and a few tanks of gas.

WOOHOO!!! Let the fun begin!

"... knocking on every piece of wood I can find ..."
That's not much of a stretch. You've got half of Lempert National Forest in the cabin of your car!

Still, glad for the update, and I'm glad she's running well for you. Refresh my memory -- did Pam make the trip this time? If so, please pass along a greeting!

Sounds good, Lane. Hope it continues like that.

Nope, Pam didn't come along. Our elderly dachshund is in such a condition that we don't feel like we can both travel at the same time. Kinda sucks, but he deserves the care.

Wish you coulda made the trip. The weather's gonna be perfect.

Someone mention ... big ass ?

...uh what the.... BWaaaaaaaaa haaaaaaaa Haaaaaaa

UPDATE: Carbs are quite happy now. Whew!

Next problem: My clutch pedal isn't returning all the way up. There seems to be 1" to 1.5" of free play where I can reach down and pull the pedal toward me and it will stay, but it doesn't return by itself when I shift. The car shifts and drives fine, and I only noticed it when I reached in the car to grab something and saw it. I pointed it out to Leon and he said "Needs to be lubed, or your outer spring on the throwout arm is broken." Not sure what needs to be lubed, though. I greased the heck out of the new cable when I put it in a few months back. Any ideas? I wasn't planning on installing the hydraulic conversion stuff until winter, but may go ahead with that if I'm having yet another cable issue.

Lane: Where should I ship that Big-assed screen door spring to??

Glen Parker!!!!!: Repeating my question: Do those Kadrons have choke plates? One of them may be stuck partially closed and making you run super-rich when warm.

gn

Check the return spring on the throw out bearing cross shaft......Don't get excited.....Its external...... ;-)

That sure seems like the most likely thing, given the symptoms.