VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1933-1936 36 Starting it for the first time

Fuel pump now fixed. Hooray.

I installed it on the engine, but only connected the INTAKE line. (GOOD TIP) Turned the engine over and started to see gas coming into the glass bowl almost immediately. (First time in 11+ years.)

Then I attached the line-out (to carburetor) and cranked it again. Surprise - no more gas flowing into the glass bowl. A ha! That meant that the line to the carb was blocked. And of course, the needle valve was the prime culprit.

I removed the top of the carb. Wicked the dark-thick goo out of the accelerator pump cavity. (AKA tar pits) Then cleaned up the sticky needle valve. Put everything together.



Cranked the engine over and it started (!) and ran a little bit rough. Modified the timing a little bit, swapped two plug wires (ouch), pushed the choke button all the way in and adjusted one valve clearance. Now it was sounding pretty good - and there was NO SMOKE.

Saw that the radiator was leaking antifreeze and that the gas line into the carb was leaking. Also the brakes didn't release very easily. But it was running and I was able to back it into the garage under it's own power for the very first time since I bought it!!!

But - most importantly, for the grand-kids, the horn honked and sounded good. (You've got to keep your priorities in order when you have observers from the next generation! Ha.)

---Bill B
PS. Now I've got to think about those 30 year-old tires that it has on it.

Great. Sounds like your having fun.

So why didn't you take it to Utah?

Sounds like Billy Boy Barker got the stuff done after the Utah meet was over.

Ha ha.. Brucie is just pulling my chain. I worked on it all week WHILE HE WAS AT UTAH!! And then I finally got it started on the Sunday that they all returned. Oh, well... next year.