A Little Further Down The Road. . .

Ok, it's been a week since my last entry. But I have been very busy chasing down problems with my Dodge. After a long day at work followed by an evening of turning a wrench I have not had the energy to sit and collect my thoughts. But today I turned in early so I could dedicate time to this blog.

Getting there was very frustrating, but in a good way.

I will start from the beginning.

Last Sunday I arrived at the maker space early so I could get a full day in. I got there at about eight. I had picked up the rebuild kit and a can of carburetor cleaner on my way. I set myself up on an old router table outside the garage because the gas would be overpowering in the shop.

After I set myself up I opened up the RV and removed the doghouse. The engine is surprisingly clean for it

s age. I removed the air cleaner and assessed the job at hand.

Yeah, I know. Clean.

But if you look carefully you will see the soot inside the bore from the poorly running engine. One thing I noticed whilst I investigated was the fact that there was absolutely no fuel filter. None. I checked all the way to the tank which I can only assume has a sock on the intake.

I proceeded to remove the linkages and vacuum tubes moving them to the side so there was little chance of them getting in the way. I found my half inch wrench and attacked the first flange nut, which was loose. Hmm. The next one was loose as well and the same for the third and fourth. Well, that was easy. I pulled the Holly up and out and set it on the seat.

I did I bit of housekeeping and cleaned the intake manifold then I covered the opening with a couple of rags. Since the carburetor still had gas in it I found a cup and emptied the contents of the bowl and poured it back into the tank. At the price of gas I'm not going to waste a drop. Next I carried it over to the table and got comfortable.

When I rebuild something I always like to take a lot of pictures so I can reference them when I forget where a particular screw goes or why I have so many parts left over. And I always have parts left over. I'll explain later.

So, where to start? I like to strip to external devices first since they are usually in the way. In this case I started with the choke pull-off. This device is used to open the choke once the engine starts. It helps when the engine is cold. Just a couple of screws and off it comes.

I also like to keep all the parts together with the corresponding screws and lay them out in the same position as to when they are assembled. Maybe a little OCD here. Next I remove the accelerator pump lever and linkage. It's the rusty plate with the two slots in it.

The accelerator pump is critical to the operation of the carburetor. What is does is it injects a spurt of fuel when you depress the gas pedal. The reason it is needed is because the air/fuel mixture is a careful balance and when you introduce more air by opening the throttle, like when you accelerate, you lean out the mixture. The accelerator pump gives an extra spray of fuel so the engine doesn't stumble or stall. I realize this is ancient information and is next to useless today but I feel that I should pass down my knowledge in the event that it may be needed.

One lever, linkage and nut. The last little bit to be removed is the lever and linkage that connects the choke to the idler cam (the white plastic thingy.)

When the choke is closed when the engine is not running this cam holds the throttle open a bit to increase the RPM's of the engine to make the warm up easier. What a lot of people don't know is how to properly set the choke during operation. It's really simple, you hop in and pump the gas once or twice, this action allows the heat stove to pull the choke plate closed and set the idler cam. You turn the key and start the engine and let the carburetor do the work. If you give it gas the vacuum pull-off will open the choke. Hopefully the engine has warmed enough and you can go about your business. Otherwise you will have to pump the gas or hold the throttle open yourself. If you find that you have to give it gas when you start it then there is something out of adjustment.

Idler cam linkage, lever and nut. Now for the fun stuff. The top plate of this Holly carburetor is held down with seven screws. Each one comes out and is placed on the table to the left in the same pattern as they were on the plate.

The reason for this is sometimes the screws can be different lengths and you don't want to mix them up.

The ring at the top of the picture is the gasket for the air cleaner. Now the top plate can be removed. Care has to be taken when separating the top plate from the horn because the accelerator pump and float are attached to it. It pulls strait up and off.

You can see the accelerator pump and float. The pump is the red thing and the float is the brown thing.

The plate to the right of the gasket is held by one little screw. It's a diffuser, it's used the keep the incoming fuel from messing up the works. The float is held in place with a plastic rod and just slides out. I take care with the float so I don't bend anything. The settings should remain the same and as long as the float is good nothing but a quick check will be needed.

This is the accelerator pump and it's in very good shape. Next I take a look at the float bowl. And here's a shocker, it's got crap in it. All the brown stuff on the bottom here is dirt and rust an what have you from the unfiltered fuel. Dumb. Carburetors are precision devices and will not tolerate dirt. So I am comfortable in my conclusion that this was the problem. And the fact that the timing was WAY off.

The next part to remove is the throttle plate. Again I removed the screws and placed them in order for the photo op. 

If you look to the right of the throttle plate you will see two white-ish caps at roughly forty five degrees. These are the idle mixture screws. The white caps are a kind of adapter that let you use a philips screwdriver. These broke off when I removed the screws.

Now I cram as much as I can into the cleaner and wait about an hour. The can says twenty minutes but the parts are really dirty. While I wait I take the old gaskets tat I carefully removed and found it's corresponding replacement. The new accelerator pump rubber was a bit smaller than the old one so I will probably use the old one. I find all the replacement gaskets and put the rest back in the box. 

Here is where we get the extra parts. The kit covers a few different models and not all the parts are used. This is why you have to be careful that you get exact matches to the old ones. A missing hole or an extra hole will make your life upsetting when you go to run it.

The first batch is done and the top plate and throttle place are now soaking. The parts are rinsed off with hot water and dried with compressed air. Remember to wear proper safety equipment. After the rinse and dry I sat sown with a clean rag and wiped everything down.

After all the parts were cleaned I reassembled the unit in about ten minutes. I didn't get any pictures of this, I was in the zone. I had just enough time to install the fresh carburetor back on the engine before I had to call it a night.

Monday I worked, and after I headed back to the RV. I was chomping at the bit when I stopped by the auto parts store to pick up a fuel filter. I installed it just before the carburetor. I hopped in the drivers seat and slid the key into the ignition. I did another visual check of all the linkages one more time. Now I had to prime the beast.
I turned the key and the engine cranked over with the mighty sound of three hundred amps spinning the starter. I watched the fuel filter for gas (it is clear plastic) and waited. I released the key to let the starter rest. Ok, no big, It's a long way from the tank to the pump it just needs a little more time.
I turn the key again and the mighty sound is a little less vigorous. No gas. To keep the battery fresh I hooked up jumpers from my little econo-box to the van battery. I gave it about ten minutes of charge and I tried again.
I turned the key and the engine spun faster than it had ever before. The battery must have been a little on the dead side. Still no gas. Then a thought occurred, maybe I had installed the filter backwards. I did look for an arrow and I pointed it in the direction of flow but I removed it anyway and blew through it. It's not the filter. Maybe I'm out of gas? I check the gauge and it's at half. Maybe the gauge doesn't work so I quickly do a calculation in my head. I put in twenty gallons before I left the sellers town. I drove about fifty five miles. so at an estimated eight gallons a mile that came to about seven gallons. I should have plenty. Did someone siphon my tank? Not unless they had about twenty feet of hose, the filler is on the back and the tank is located about center.
It has to be the fuel pump. Why now? I ordered a pump and picked it up the next afternoon. After work I drove up and installed the new pump.
Ok, here it goes. I hooked up the jumpers again and I hop in the drivers seat. I inserted the key and gave it a twist. The engine spun again with a sound that is unique to the Chrysler 350CID. And about three or four seconds later the fuel filter filled up. I let it rest and breathed a sigh of relief. The next crank will tell me if I was successful or not.
I turned the key again and almost immediately the engine fired. Vroom. And luckily, I it sounds like everything is set correctly. The throttle has a snappy response and it doe's not hesitate stutter or stall. I looked over the carburetor and noticed a fuel leak. This was quickly fixed when I tightened the fuel line which I had hand tightened.
I put the air cleaner back on and closed it up.

Today I took it for a small ride and it feels good.