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I知 ready to tear my hair (what little is left) out. My 55 Super 88 now starts and idles great, even revs up a lot. . But when I put it into gear, any gear, it falters and dies. With the gas pedal all the way to the floor, five mph is the best it will do going around the block. The fuel pump pressure is about 4.75 pounds. (For more background, my posts, Carburetor Linkage, April 8, 2023 and Carb Issue?, Dec. 2, 2022 have a lot more on my trials and tribulations.). This all started when I had a knocking valve lifter. I had those and the camshaft replaced. It worked fine for a few days, then all the trouble started. I want to drive this car, not just work on it. Help?
Don't give up yet. You said you have some pics before it underwent the cam change and it was running fine then. If you have those pics compare them to how the carb and linkage is set up now. I found a couple of differences in the pics from when you first asked for help and the recent pics
The rod for the accelerator pump circled in this pic shows you have it in the lowest hole compared from the earlier pic it's in the middle hole. It doesn't really matter but in the earlier pic one of the connecting rods had a cotter pin and now it has a different type.
In one pic the choke plate is closed and the other it's partly open. Not sure if it's because of different engine temps or maybe the rod isn't connected (can't see the other end)? When I see changes like this it makes me wonder maybe you didn't hook everything back up as you had it before. Look everything over really good maybe something else will stand out.
You never let us know what the result was of hooking up the gas can or if the hole in the spacer was an open vac leak.
The easy stuff first. The hole in the spacer did not go all the way through. So, no vacuum leak there. I’ll move the accelerator pump into the second hole and try that. I will compare my pics closely and see if there are other differences. I never did the gas can to carb experiment. It runs fine on the fuel pump in the garage and I don’t know a safe way to rig up a gas can and drive at the same time. The fuel pump produces about 4.75 lbs. of pressure. And the vacuum side was good too.
Aye, Dave, gremlins can certainly be frustrating. But come back to it when you're relaxed and start looking methodically for the problem. Stop and leave it for another time if your heart rate starts climbing.
You can laugh about this old car story from 30 years back.
A friend and I are experts in Rochester mechanical fuel injection (1957 to 1965). An owner readied his immaculately-restored 1957 Bel Aire for its first car show. He took it to the dealership with the best reputation for fuel injection work. When they gave it back to him, it would sputter but not run. He couldn't go to the show and was so frustrated, he sold it for about 1/3 value--blaming the fuel injection.
The buyer came to my friend and I. We started out methodically and soon found that the dealer tech had probably dropped 6 of the plugs, as the side wires were collapsed on the center electrodes. Then we worked on the fuel injection to make it hum.
Moral of the story is that many times it's something simple. Just persevere and you'll find it. You've got some great resources on this site to draw from.
I don’t know if this is relevant to my problem today but I found this hanging off the tranny today. I think it is the remains of a bracket, but I have no idea what it held. Could it have a been a vacuum line bracket? A friend suggested the possibility of a missing vacuum hose. Ideas?
I moved the accelerator pump rod to the middle hole. It started up and had great acceleration out of the driveway. I thought to myself, this can’t be all that was wrong this whole time. Then after a block and a half it did it again. Slowed, then died. I did get it started after a while and got it back in the garage. I called Fusick and ordered a new fuel pump. Maybe that’s been the problem all along. If that doesn’t fix it, at least I won’t have to worry about the fuel pump for the next 68 years.
This saga may be finally coming to a glorious conclusion. The car seems to be running fine now. I purchased a timing light. Apparently when the cam shaft and valve lifters were replaced, the mechanic adjusted the timing. I’m guessing that the hold down was not securely tightened. Because when I put my brand new timing light on the car, I found the timing to be about an inch and a half before top dead center. No wonder it wouldn’t run!! I adjusted the timing to 5 degrees before TDB, tightened down the locking bolt and slowed the idle down a bit. Pulled out of the driveway and voila, it ran like a brand new car! Well, actually, not quite like brand new. There’s still a little looseness in the steering and maybe a bit of delay at the shift points. I don’t know if I should just be grateful that it’s running or if I should be mad that it took me (with lots of help from you guys) so long to fix something so simple. Thanks to all who offered encouragement and support.
And, now you know a lot more about your car. I've found after a few episodes like this, It gets a lot easier to trouble shoot. And much less trepidation diving into a new job.
April 20th, 2023, 06:48 AM
