The Official John Lee Jr Thread

[Sharps40]

Bit of a scare today. Everything runnin like a new truck and its been nigh onto a month since I raised the hood. Headin up the road, perkin along at 70 mph on the 5 speed and lovin the cool breeze in thru both vents and the wing winders.....got off the spressway and pulled up to the light......

Looked back, gobs rich black smoke. looked at the tach and idling 850 rpm (normal is 550 rpm) and rough as a cob. Looked at the fuel gauge and 7 gallons burned in 70 miles. WOW did the worries kick in.

Popped the hood, spectin the lectric choke to have malfunctioned and stuck closed causin the excessive piggishness....nope, all well there.

70 miles from home and out in the middle of nowhere central NC so we turned around and ran home.....motor is under warrenty and I need to be closer if a tow is necessary...

Runs super, no smoke, get close to home, hit the stop sign....black smoke and stinkin of fuel...dayum.....jest get home.

Pulled into the driveway and left it idling, rough as a cob and looks like a wet wood fire burnin under the rear bumper....

Popped the hood, pulled the air cleaner...choke is fine, linkage not jammed, idle is still 850 and rough as a cob.

Grabbed a flashlight and the secondary throttle plate is wet with fuel, looked in the top and the bowl is tippi top better sip on the edge of the glass afore ya pick it up full....so....gotta be and overheated fuel pump cause the carb is cool and condensed on the outside.....or could be a stuck needle.....

Yanked the accelerator and reved it past its 2700 rpm 70 mph engine speed all the way to 4500 rpm, eased it down and yanked it back up to 5000 the secondtime and let the throttle slam shut......

Idled back down smooth and easy, 550 rpm, smoke gone, smooth as silk and happy as a Big Gal at the County Fair knoshin on a Corn Dodger, Cotton Candy, French Fries with gravy and sippin on a 92 ounce R-O-C Co Cola! Stuck needle it was!

Time to change the fuel filter and clean out the jets. Mr. Langdon did say the webers can be a bit sensitive to dirt in the system so use a good filter and change it often.....I'm guessin 20,000 miles is a bit beyond the proper change interval!

Evening drive went well, picked up a filter and can o cleaner with a swoosh tube and we'll spiff it up in the morning afor the skeeters get busy dining out.

Sure glad it was an easy fix....mash the pedal, it fixes a lot of stuff I reckon.

[TJ's Chevy]

Gotta say these new carbs are crap....I will say I prefer my Edelbrock over your Weber...Thing I hate about mine is unless I take it for a drive down the road..the truck idles poorly...after driving a few miles down the road and back..it idles fine...well..old truck...old engine...gas is crap compared to what it used to be...can't complain..it runs. lol Glad you fixed your issues.

[Sharps40]

Well, this weren't a carb issue (more like PMCS as my sister so effectively lectured me last eve, see below) and short of a big build six or at least a stock 292 I wouldn't entertain a four barrel. Much better throttle response in the driving range having the smaller primary.

[Sharps40]

On top of it all yesterday evening....I get a call from my lil sister......imagin my shock and horror when she (in no way a car girl but knowledgeable none the less) pointedly and succinctly dresses me down for missing dinner with a brief diatribe on the value of fuel system Preventive Maintenance Checks and Services. Ouch, I slept poorly to say the least.

But, up early with the sun and the dogs and 30 minutes of inspection and maintenance and we are ready for a test fire, leak check and road test.

A look into the fuel bowl. Fines accumulating at 4, 7 & 10 oclock. So I swarfed out the carb, inside and out with cleaner sauce, pulled and flushed all the jets and the needle and seat. Should be fine, nothing appeared to be restricted or plugged. The idle jets on both barrels have wee teeny tiny passages but they flow pressurized cleaner sauce from a swooshie straw with alacrity. Sure is a lotta jets and flow type bushings in this here carb....I think I counted 11 or 15.....hard to remember cause I only got 10 fingers to tick em off....but I squooched all I could find and purged the emulsion sticktube thingies as well.



This might be the culprit....though I run a good quality filter twixt the pump and carb inlet, here is the strainer on the carb between the needle and the fuel filter.....icky....that ain't all of it, some was in the housing and two bitty bits fell out of the strainer onta the surgically clean paper towel. Ouch....its a 2 year old tank, 2 year old lines, 3 month old hoses and what I thought was a good filter.....guess I got some gunkey gunk in the tank and the filter finally broke down a bit.....anyway, junk appears to have gotten past the filter and screen to lift and hold the needle offa the seat. Ah well, more work with the high pressure cleaner sauce and alla the bits blasted into the air and away from the carb. Should be good to go.....fingers crossed.

[McMurphy]

This is a great example of a "Lesson Learned".
We use this concept in the Army as a means for others to learn from a particular incident or event that resulted in a quantifiable result, either good or bad in outcome.

This helps us to identify potential issues earlier on, and/or initiate corrections or fixes promptly.
Your black smoke had my attention pretty solid !!

Thanks for sharing

[CRGRS 66]

"happy as a Big Gal at the County Fair knoshin on a Corn Dodger, Cotton Candy, French Fries with gravy and sippin on a 92 ounce R-O-C Co Cola!"

This is just simply a level of happiness that I was not aware to be achievable

[Sharps40]

The County Fair is the WalMart of opportunity to find true love! or ya can jes get drunk and go hoggin.

[TJ's Chevy]

Originally Posted by sharps40

the county fair is the walmart of opportunity to find true love! Or ya can jes get drunk and go hoggin.

lol!!!!!!

[1963c-10]

Your becoming a wiz with these fuel systems Rich!!

[Sharps40]

I'm tryin. I am gonna replumb the one old crusty line left on the truck....its a fuel line naturally....new tank, new pump, new rubber....at the same time I'm going from dinky inline cheesy filter to what was recommended by Mr. Langdon, Big Giant micron filter from a fuel injection rig. Just gotta get busy in the shop and make a nice mounting bracket and decide where inside the PS frame rail I'll hang it and then detetermine if I want the lines to continue up over the engine or bring em up nice and neat across the firewall and over to the carbie. I think it'll be a good opportunity to make up some more nifty polished aluminium brackets like the one I put on there when i insulated all the existing lines. I really don't like over the valve cover for looks...but the factory around and near the waterneck and then over the manifolds is just 20" of heat sink for the fuel! I'll finger sumthin out...just gotta drink summore beer!

[Sharps40]

Interestingly enough....a clean out, slightly smaller secondary jet and light tweaks to relieve it of some time on choke since its full hot summer and this tank of fuel registered an even 20 mpg. Pleasing.

[TJ's Chevy]

Nice...20 mpg is always nice...Looks like I'm gonna consider a new tranny. lol I wanna do a richmond 6 speed, but the S-10 5 speed seems just as nice for cheaper to.

[Sharps40]

I think with an I6, 5 gears is bout enough. Its sure enough rowin with a stiff clutch pedal in traffic. More than that and I'd stick in a 200R4 on a 6 or 700R4 on an 8 and be done with rowing forever!

[TJ's Chevy]

I like the 6 speed cause of the close gear splits when shifting...

3.28 1st

2.14 2nd

1.57 3rd

1.24 4th

1.00 5th

.76 6th

Bout 800-1000 rpm split between all gears except OD. Which is nice considering the I6 is a great cruising engine.

[aggie91]

How did you finally end up routing the fuel line from the pump to the carb?

[K98AL]

Sure like your new door modifications. That is a totally acceptable customization here in OK. Carry on!