Help a brother out

Uncle Skip · Post by **Uncle Skip** » September 10, 2007, 6:19 pm

As you've all seen, RatFinkMike has a beautiful ride. Miss Daisy is a sweetheart in all respects, BUT, she has developed a nasty habit of stranding Mike at various intervals.
Fuel starvation is what he suspects but everything in the system is new "except" the tank.
He has a new stainless vented fuel cap.
He has redundant fuel filters, all clean.
He says the tank was cleaned and coated a couple of years ago but I seem to remember that some of the coatings available back then had a warning about being used with certain additives. I'm wondering if the ethanol and other crap the government has dictated we use isn't softening up the coating and causing a "scab" to cover the pickup periodically.
Any ideas or suggestions?
He's going to pull the tank this weekend and we will see if it's fouled inside and IF we find anything we'll report back.
If you have an idea, please let me know asap.
Thanks guys.
U@ss

dwbr · Post by **dwbr** » September 10, 2007, 7:02 pm

is there any debris in the filters ?
is the gas line vapor locking? my jeep used to get vapor locked, once it cooled down it would fire right back up, finaly moved the fule line and wrapped it with insulation, problem solved
________
buy iolite vaporizer

banjopicker66 · Post by **banjopicker66** » September 10, 2007, 7:03 pm

If this started after he installed the new vented cap, then the vent may be bad.
Fuel pump pressure OK?
Fuel pump draw (vacuum) OK?
Otherwise, put in a temporary T in the fuel line to the carb for a fuel pump pressure gauge and keep the gauge in the cab. Then, check the pressure when the thing starts acting up.

Uncle Skip · Post by **Uncle Skip** » September 10, 2007, 8:29 pm

The wanker runs for about 30 minutes to an hour and then craters.
No pattern.
Go figure.
I'm stumped and I've been at this for more than 40 years.
U@ss

Phil · Post by **Phil** » September 10, 2007, 8:37 pm

Just to add to the confusion my Black 460 Torino had a duraspark ignition.
It would do the same, It was like running out of gas.

Turns out one of the wires from the duraspark was coming out of its coupler. It would randomly kill the ignition

My current car does a similar thing. If I get on it and let off it the idle stumbles and dies occaisionally. Not everytime.
If I ease out it will idle down OK. My buddy says the way to fix it is to "never let up" :lol:

Wierd thing is the tach never drops below 1K rpm when the engine is stumbling. Makes me sorta think there is a short in the ignition circuit

I replaced all the duraspark stuff for kicks and soldered the connections and no dice. My next step is to run an aux fuel guage as suggested above to rule out fuel delivery. I also suspect a damaged power valve due to some breakin carb backfires.

Hope you get her sorted. Ill get on mine when my Uni's honeymoon is over and I get back to the Fairlane

In addition my good friend Chris used to offer a service of coating tanks with Eastwood's product. He is a very meticulous guy and I'd trust him with any type of this stuff. He just recently posted that after 5 years his Cobra tank coating is peeling off.

jakdad · Post by **jakdad** » September 10, 2007, 8:52 pm

I had one that did that and it turned out to be a bad coil. Any of the times it shut down, has he felt the coil to see if it was real hot. They get hot sitting on the engine but I mean really hot. Might be worth a try before you pull the tank. Doesn't matter if he just replaced the coil, check it anyway. And if he is on Duraspark, switch boxes. Good luck guys.

unibodyboy · Post by **unibodyboy** » September 10, 2007, 10:16 pm

I had a similar problem recently, and the problem was a new fuel pump. It would run for a bit, then just quit... then run again. Might try troubleshooting that area if you haven't already. The reason I missed this for so long was that when you unhooked the fuel line, it would give you enough gas to look like the pump was working, however if done for a longer duration the pump would cut out. Just a thought.

banjopicker66 · Post by **banjopicker66** » September 11, 2007, 5:47 am

Skip, remember the basic basics. I really don't mean to sound pedantic, but it is quite easy to forget the basics and start looking for esoteric things when getting lost in a simple problem that won't let itself get fixed.
Remember Occam's Razor.

If it dies suddenly, it is electrical.
If it sputters to a dying halt, it is fuel.

If you think it is a fuel problem, I still recommend you put a fuel pressure/vacuum gauge between the fuel pump and the carb; a drop in pressure with the gauge between those 2 should tell you if the pump is bad.
A spike in vacuum with the pressure/vacuum gauge between the tank and the pump should tell you if a plug in the tank occurs. Of course, a drop in vacuum would tell you if you have a bad pump, or an air leak somewhere.

I once had a problem I could not trace, and thought it was electrical, but wasn't sure. I was dirt poor then, and could barely afford a new coil, so I had to get it right the first time. I hooked an old timing light to the coil wire (the early, non-inductive type, the basic kind you insert between the #1 plug and the wire) up, and then taped it to the air cleaner facing the windshield so that I could see the flashes between the hood and the cowl.

Sure enough, the timing light quit flashing in time with the engine sputtering - and did it while I was driving, so I got "real-time" information.

Hope this helps even if it only encourages you and RatFinkMike, and best of luck and patience to you.

banjopicker66 · Post by **banjopicker66** » September 12, 2007, 6:30 am

Bump?
Did you figure it out?

Uncle Skip · Post by **Uncle Skip** » September 12, 2007, 9:16 am

This weekend......
Skip

Red62Uni · Post by **Red62Uni** » September 12, 2007, 12:50 pm

i had a problem with a old mustang cutting off then i switched motors with a fairlane that was badly wrecked problem gone. so its simple just get a new fuel tank, lines, and engine lol. problem solved. just kiddin mine was carb related i think.