What did you get done? Christmas edition.

[N2TRUX]

Since I was a good boy this year and did all my Christmas shopping early I had a chance to relax a bit this weekend. Even though I am on call I still got a few things done.

Friday evening my family came over for Christmas. We ate and played cards while the kids opened presents.

Saturday morning I washed and detailed the daily drivers, then took my daughter to a volleyball private lesson. On the way home I stopped and bought new wipers for the 03 Denali XL and a new hatch strut for the 84 Z-28.
Today I remembered I had to buy an SD memory card for my daughters new digi-cam so I went to Best Buy and scored a 2 gig card for 29.99.

I spent the rest of the afternoon working on the Z-28. I put the new oil filter on and poured oil in the valve covers on both sides of the motor so it could pick up fresh oil quickly. I added fresh gas and a couple of bottles of rubbing alcohol to the tank to absorb any moisture that might have collected.

I set the new battery in, squirted starting fluid down the carb and turned her over a couple times. Once I felt everything sounded good I gave her a try and she busted to life....then died.

I repeated this procedure about 20 times. She will start and run on starter fluid or a shot of gas down the carb then dies. I pulled the fuel lines at the pump and blew air through the lines and they seem to be clear.

I decided to have my wife try to start it while I kept it running with the gas can. Of course it popped and caught the gas can on fire. I slung a little gas as I reached for a rag to put the can out and set the car, a blanket, and a box on fire.

Meanwhile flames are shooting out of the carb and I'm telling my wife to turn it over. She freakin but finally does what I say and kills the carb fire. A few quick swats with a rag put the other small fires out. My wife leaves after that. She has no sense of adventure at all.

With all the fires out I am still scratching my head. I don't know why it won't prime the pump. I tried letting the front of the car down a little thinking maybe I had too much angle and the fuel wouldn't reach the pick up. That didn't help.

It would start and run just fine before it sat for the past few years so everything "was" working. Any ideas?


What did you get done?