Trigger Pulled

[spectre6000]

Since no one seems to have any recommendations, I'll offer one. It's only a recommendation insofar as there actually IS someone in the area still doing this sort of service. When I get the tank back (in two weeks :-( ) I'll let you know how it was.

Spike Radiator & Air Conditioning
2331 West Hampden Avenue
Englewood, CO 80110
(303) 762-7522

The service includes dipping the tank however many times it takes to get it clean of junk (there was quite a bit in my case), media blasting inside and out, any metal work that needs to be done (pinholes and the like), proper prep (I grilled him on this as a lot of guys will just dip it and slosh some sealer around inside and it'll flake off and really mess things up within a year), coating the inside of the tank with a plastic sort of coating, then painting the exterior of the tank. Essentially, a full restoration. Hopefully it's of the quality I expect out of my cars, and for the price ($300) it had better be. I went back into the shop and checked that out (I don't generally trust shops to work on my cars... Too many idiot gorillas slinging wrenches without a clue). It looks well used, as clean as such a shop can be expected to be, and properly equipped for the job. The guy doing the work seemed fairly high caliber and genuine, so I have high hopes. I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Meanwhile, since I'm running the 40 out of a gas can for the time being, I'll not be joining you this evening for the meeting. January will likely be a different story.

 

[spectre6000]

I tried to track down my vacuum leak by running the truck off the gas can. I ran the tank in/out lines down through the wheel well to the gas can. It went fine (I now know it's definitely related to the brake system) until the bowl ran dry. Deja vu... I checked the sight glass, and the bowl was empty. I checked the fuel filter, and it was ALSO empty. I watched the fuel filter while my lovely assistant turned the key, and it would kind of burble but wouldn't get enough gas in it to really do anything.

Is the fuel tank somehow supposed to be pressurized? I know modern cars are, but I've never dealt with anything that was and don't honestly know how those systems function...

I used 5/16th fuel line for this charade (that's what was on it, and I am shotgunning the fuel lines for good measure), but that seems a bit large on paper. I didn't run it with a fuel clamp either, but for this temporary test I didn't think it would be necessary... Is the fuel line maybe too big/not clamped and the pump is sucking air?

It's probably crap in the carb from the tank being as nasty as it was (the filter was plugged up pretty badly), but I want to make sure I'm not missing something that I would know if I wasn't new to cruisers before I go and tear the thing down again...

I'm really getting frustrated with trying to find this ridiculous vacuum leak...

 

[farnhamstj]

Pssst...




We like pictures.

 

[spectre6000]

[stage whisper] What would you like photos of? [/stage whisper]

 

[subzali]

Pump could be sucking air, but no, the fuel tank is not normally supposed to be pressurized. Your mechanical fuel pump *should* have enough lift to draw fuel from a gas can on the ground, but the fuel tank in the truck is located higher than the fuel pump.

Crack the fitting at the carb loose and bleed the system and try again.

 

[farnhamstj]

[stage whisper] What would you like photos of? [/stage whisper]

Rusty fj40 parts, followed by photos of non-rusty fj40 parts

 

[spectre6000]

You might be disappointed then... I'm not doing a whole lot in the way of de-rusting this go round. I'm trying to get this thing up and running as a winter DD, which means no attention to anything aesthetic for the time being. With the exception of the fuel tank and getting some new hardware to make up for the nuts and bolts I wasn't able to find in the coffee cans full of nuts and bolts, she's staying ugly for a year or two.

My restoration strategy is to get everything mechanically and electrically flawless, THEN worry about pretty. The end results are much better. Additionally, my present situation does not allow for too much heavy lifting, as it were. My wife and I sold off a significant portion of our possessions and moved into a tiny cabin up here while I get my business started. We weren't thrilled with our jobs or surroundings where we were, and figured out that the only things holding us there were entirely external to us and not worth worrying about. We asked ourselves where we would live if we could live anywhere in the world, narrowed it down to a few places, and ended up here. One of the sacrifices was my shop (all of my bigger tools are down in Dallas in storage along with my current body-off restoration project) and full access (through the car club I started and ran until coming up here) to two (now three) full additional automotive shops (one mechanical only, two full restoration outfits). Now I keep my smaller tools in a small office room in the house, and the medium sized stuff (and my welding kit) live in the crawl space. The rest (along with a car and several engines on pallet racks) are 1,000 miles away... My current work space consists of a sort of flat spot a floor and a half below the house with no electricity and no ground hard enough to safely operate a jack. It's less than ideal, but temporary and, as I sit here looking out over my little chunk of serene wilderness from my coffee table with the freedom and ability to spend time on these sorts of things (my engineers are working on a major project that's taking longer than expected, and I'm stuck until they finish), it's worth the price of admission.

I should be able to get my current project car up here and finished this spring/summer, and will probably give the 40 the full treatment the following summer. I'm going to pay to have the remainder of the body work done on my bug because it's been too long and I'm ready to have it done, but I will be doing the 40 completely in house (it's too simple not to).

 

[spectre6000]

I'm anxious to get this thing on the road, so I put on some relatively warm clothes and braved the snow (graupel actually)...

Redneck carb rebuild complete. No delta. I moved the gas can up above the fuel pump, still no love. At this point it's pretty much the fuel pump. Now I'm going to spend some time searching for general information on the subject and see about rebuild kits (are there fuel pump rebuild kits for these?).

 

[subzali]

I don't think so. I think you have to buy a new or rebuilt one. Try to stay with Kyosan Denki or Nikki fuel pumps if you can (open the box and check it out).

I thought you said your filter was plugged, so you were going to get the fuel tank cleaned? Are you seeing fuel to the fuel pump but no fuel on the discharge? Weird that it just stopped working. The diaphragm can go out and then it pumps fuel into the crankcase, so check your oil and see if it smells gassy. If it does you need to change the oil. Sometimes the lever for the fuel pump gets worn down pretty good, when you pull the fuel pump off you can check it out.

 

[spectre6000]

The filter WAS plugged, and the tank is at the radiator shop now. I'm running fuel lines from a gas can straight to the pump (positioned under the wheel well) and back right now so I can continue to get things fixed and roadworthy while the tank is out to lunch. Last night it was almost sorta getting a little burble of fuel in the filter, but that was it. Nothing at all today. The pump had to have gone bad sometime between the filter clogging and this morning.

I just came in from some fiddling... I figured if the pump is clogged, the only real gasket that would be problematic would be the one between the pump and the body (the rubber stuff is usually pretty resilient). Since it's all accessible from the top, I figured I would give it a try. I took the top off the pump and everything looked fine. I took the middle section off, and there was a tiny bit of crap in it, but nothing damning. The diaphragm appeared fine (no obvious tears), but there's really no way to check the valves save that they looked pretty stiff... Also the top plate gasket was dry and deformed. I'm guessing the pump is just seriously old, and sitting for years with gas in it didn't do it any justice. I sprayed the whole lot clean with carb cleaner and reassembled. For grins (and to test to see if the pump is doing anything at all), I turned it over with the fuel line leaving the pump disconnected (if it's in any way functional, it will spit a little puddle pretty quickly). Nothing. I tried to spray out the fuel lines to make sure they're clear but ran out of carb cleaner... I just ordered a new pump from O'Reilly (Airtex brand, which is a rebranded OEM according to Mud), so I'll pick that up along with some more carb cleaner tomorrow... Maybe THEN I'll be able to find this vacuum leak...

 

[subzali]

Is your fuel filter before or after the pump? It should be before. If it's not getting through the filter there won't be anything for the pump to pump! (I know you know this, just stating the obvious)

 

[spectre6000]

It's before, but stuff can still get through on occasion. The trash clogging the filter was mostly sediment, and it's small enough to potentially get past filter mesh.

 

[farnhamstj]

In my mind I'm imagining something like this.

 

[spectre6000]

What is causing you to imagine that?

 

[farnhamstj]

threads are better with pictures. That one is funny.

When the fuel pump went out on my 78 it poured fuel everywhere.

Be sure all the lines are free of rust before installing the new fuel pump.

 

[spectre6000]

Here's a picture of my '57 Karmann Ghia (coming soon). If you do a google image search for "57 karmann ghia" it's the second result.

Here's my '58 Beetle (more or less as it sits now).

My '62 panel bus (recently departed) driving through Times Square on our honeymoon (wife jumped out at one light, took some photos, and jumped in at the next light).

And yours truly painting a chassis (I think) and demonstrating appropriate lung safety for some reason.

There isn't really much photo worthy so far in my opinion, but if there's something someone would like to see I'll gladly take a few. It's just a stock engine compartment and a bunch of soiled latex gloves with a few tools scattered around.

 

[subzali]

like the pictures of the VWs. We've got some VW fans here in the club. A couple (ex?) Ghia owners too...

 

[spectre6000]

If any VW/Porsche volk need some assistance with anything air cooled, feel free to hit me up. I may not be too hip to cruisers yet, but I can do anything on a VW top to bottom in my sleep and have been ITCHING to play with them (the 40 is to no small degree a VW-wrenching surrogate). I have most of the special tools (I bought out an old shop with some friends), and potentially have access to those I don't have (still looking for a good king/link pin reamer set if anyone knows where to find them). I wouldn't be my first choice for a headliner, and I hate the sanding side of body work, but I've done nearly everything that can be done on nearly every vintage of nearly every model (I'm a little thin with fuel injection, later 412s, 911s, and Hebmüllers, though I have had intimate contact with all of them). The club I started back in Dallas (Das Klub) had work days once a month to a few a week depending on weather and what needed to be done. It's without a doubt the best team building, best learning experience, and most fun humanly possible.

That said, if anyone needs some wrenching help (on anything really), please hit me up; especially the really heavy duty stuff. If anyone wants to rebuild axles, engines, trannies, what have you, I may not be able to contribute much in the way of direct experience but I can hand tools and read manuals with the best of them! Likewise, if anyone has experience tuning the carbs on these, I'm going to be seat-of-my-pantsing it without a wide band or a performance baseline and I would really appreciate the help. If no one volunteers, I'll likely be taking it to RMC and paying out the nose (unless anyone has any alternative recommendations).

 

[rover67]

you can borrow my wide band if you want, just let me know.

 

[rover67]

The pics are cool BTW. looks like you take good ones, also dig the vw stuff. We have been toying with getting a bug of some flavor for a while now.