So what's the big deal about blogging anyway? After all, us old-time webheads already maintained webpages detailing our various exploits and opinions and what not.
My page on the 1969 F100 was started in 2001 before blogging became geek-chic. In many ways, that page was a blog of what I was doing with the F100. Not that I updated it much...
Anyway, here's my gearhead blog. Done in the old way i.e. with a text editor and with no fancy PHP or MySQL backend.
4/10/05
Well, the F350 is running again. Finally.
After 2 broken carburetors and about $700 down the drain.
That's right. Broken carburetors.
Let me tell you why.
I had this bright idea of putting in a carburetor spacer.
Which is all fine and good. Until you consider that I chose to use a phenolic spacer from Jegs.
Phenolic is some kind of high temperature resistant plastic which is to say, not quite resistant enough.
Normally, the F350 has an EGR plate sitting between the carburetor and the intake manifold. So the phenolic spacer was sitting between the carburetor and the EGR plate. This meant that hot exhaust gases were in contact with the spacer.
Result? An oh so sightly warped phenolic spacer.
So when I torqued down the carburetor, one of the 4 tabs that mount the carburetor to the intake studs snapped off! That's about a 1/2 inch thick piece of metal snapping in half.
This happened with the Winchester Auto carburetor (see entry below) and with the new Kragen carburetor. So $700+ down the drain.
I finally had the sense to pull the spacer and check for flatness. And yes, it was warped!
I ended up getting an aluminium spacer from Summit and even checked for flatness before installing it.
The third carburetor installed without mishap. Whew!
Of course, nothing was perfect as the fuel filter leaked. I bought another filter and used the metal washer that came with it instead of a gasket and the leak stopped.
And so I have a running F350 again.
I get the impression that Carb spacers are junk. The phenolic one was the second one I got. The first was an aluminium one made by Trans-Dapt. The mounting holes were completely misdrilled. Completely unuseable!
3/14/05
Wife called me at work. The big truck was spewing gasoline. The gas tanks have quite a fair bit of pressure internally and that pression had overcome the fuel pumps. Obviously, there was no carb installed and I had not clamped the fuel line.
So the top of the engine was flooded with gasoline. Does anyone have a match?
Anyway, I got the new carb from Kragen. Only problem is .... it was missing the EGR tube. Grrrr. What's the matter with these carb rebuilders?
The Kragen guys pulled the tube from the carb I returned yesterday.
Can't wait to install the thing this weekend and see what else can go wrong...
3/13/05
Kragen will take back the leaking carb and get me another one. Hope the next one will be better.
Meanwhile, the Ford Escort battery is dead because we haven't driven it in a while. Since the battery is in a generally bad condition (greenish corrosion stuff all over) and OSH has a sales tax free weekend, I decided to get a new battery.
Installation was tricky because I had to undo the strut bar first. And the new battery was about 0.5" larger than the battery tray. Not too bad. It could still be used. I should have checked today's date :-(
3/12/05
One problem with the carb I had just installed was that the throttle linkage did not have a tab for the dash pot.
It had 2 tabs facing the carburetor. The original carburetor had one tab facing outwards for the dash pot.
I doubted that the set up would be able to pass the smog visual inspection. After all, if the dash pot wasn't pushing against
anything, it wasn't doing what it was supposed to. So I ordered a 64-4444 carb from Partsamerica.com aka Kragen. Surprise!
It had the correct throttle linkage! So I removed the newly installed carb (that I had just bought from Winchester Auto) and put
in the Kragen one. After adjusting fast idle etc, the F-350 was running again! I'm going to speed up the idle by a 1/4 turn and
take it for a drive up the hills towards Livermore.
Well, it runs great. I went up the hills at 80mph with no hesitation. The only problem is that the carburetor leaks!!!! Now I have to wait for
the truck to cool down and put back the Winchester Auto carburetor! @#$@#%^ I hate Kragen....
Hate myself too. I tried putting back the Winchester Auto carburetor. Hooked up everything and it leaked like a sieve from the
fuel inlet.
I suddenly understood why I had been having little fuel leaks : the fuel filter is screwed on and the threads where
a little stripped. So the fuel filter was never tightly screwed on. So there went $385+tax down the drain. The
worst moment of the day was when I removed the carb and broke the carburetor mount ... That was REALLY
$385+tax down the drain.
I'm going to see if I can get the Kragen carb repaired. Then I'll use it.
3/6/05
The big truck (aka F350) is running again. I changed most of the vacuum lines and replaced a number of vacuum components. The big difference is that when the previous owner had someone put in a new carburetor, the spark advance was connected to the EGR port of the carb. Not good. According to the vacuum diagram, the normal spark advance should come from the intake manifold via a vacuum restrictor. Obviously, no one in any parts store or Mission Valley Ford parts dept knows what the vacuum restrictor should be. So I ended up using the spark port on the carb instead.
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