1 Step Forward, 2 Steps Back

Ben Carter came over on Saturday to help me on the truck. It turns out that the distributor was so loose that the only reason that the truck would run at all was because the spark plug wires kept the distributor in roughly the right location.

Once we started messing with it, we kind of lost the recipe. We think we got the distributor back close enough to correct timing but by then the battery was drained from trying to start it.

Ben also noticed a small fuel leak from the carb. We pulled that off again and put some RTV on the gasket to try to cut down on the leaking.

He also thought that not enough fuel was getting to the filter. He was concerned that the pump was not working well enough.

We called it a day and I got ready for the FD banquet.

Today I decided to check the entire fuel delivery system. I pulled and cleaned the fuel pump:

Shiny! Again when I worked the lever manually it seemed to deliver a pretty powerful stream of fuel from the discharge.

I started to remove the gas tank, but it was too heavy with all the gas, so I started siphoning it out. Then I got under the truck because I was worried that there was a gas tank hold-down bolt and I should probably unscrew it. I found a bolt underneath just as I suspected and unscrewed it. It turns out that it was the gas tank drain. Gas poured out all over me, my work light, and the garage floor! It was a mess.

With the help of my newly discovered tank drain, I got the gas drained and the tank removed:


The space behind the gas tank really needs a shop vac:


I had to call it a day as we were hosting some business associates visiting Colorado from Switzerland. Turns out one of the guys has an old Jag so he was interested in seeing the truck :-)

So the next order of business for the fuel system is:
1) Clean the gas tank inside and out (I'll use carb cleaner in the tank to remove the gunk)
2) Replace the sending unit

3) Replace the flexible line that connects the tank to the main fuel line

4) Reassemble the fuel pump to the engine
5) Vacuum out the cab, especially behind the gas tank
6) Recharge the battery
7) Try to start it and back to square one with timing.

Hopefully I can get the timing close enough to allow the truck to run long enough to warm it up so I can see if my timing light will work.