Tech day part 3

[Gina K]

I second that thought Roger and thanks to ALL who helped with my car. Lots of great humor and very little hiccups with the assembly and install, usually lots more goes wrong doing a project like this one. It was hard turning back and leaving her at Steve's but she'll be rolling soon and then I will be as happy as Steve is driving his delivery!
Thanks again Roger, Steve, Gene, Bill, Miles and Laurie

[Gina K]

Just a quick update......the Comet is home but it didn't get here under her own power, Steve trailered it here for me (many thanks). It idles fine but dies when it's given gas??? We've ruled out vac leak, next is compression check and change the mini copper looking filter that attaches to the carb. More will be reveiled.

[Luva65wagon]

I hope you find something simple. Sadly it was growing so late and we didn't have the luxury of resolving the issue that night.

So, my question, based upon this move of the car, were you not going to have that carburetor done at a carb shop? I'm working on a manual choke 1100 right now, which I'll have done mid-week sometime. It was pristine other than needing a rebuild. I actually have two of them in about the same condition and bought two kits to rebuild them both. I know, not automatic choke, but for the purposes of ruling out carb issues, either are better than a carb I know was a crap-shoot. Steve indicated they both run fine on the Mustang, so that is a wrench thrown in my logic, but he's not hauled the Mustang down the road, has he? (Steve?)

Also, it might be that the valves have seated now and they need to be readjusted again. I did a cold adjustment, but a hot adjustment really needs to be done. I found this post from a while back on adjusting valves:

According to the Schjeldahl Bible the 144 was solid lifter. Interestingly, this nifty little book (I have the 4th printing of 2001) doesn't tell you the valve adjustment specs on the 144 and 170 with solid lifters. So onto Google and found this:

The spec for mech lifters is .016" hot for intake and exhaust. Add .004 to the setting if you are setting them cold to allow for expansion when hot.

Set engine up on TDC # 1 cyl. now adjust both valves on # 1 cyl, Turn the crank (looking from the front of engine) clockwise 1/3rd of a turn and adjust both valves on # 5 cyl. Now repeat this for each cylinder following the firing order, order is 1, 5, 3, 6, 2, 4.

If you remove the distributor cap while diong this you will notice that each 1/3rd of a turn of the crank, the rotor will point to the appropriate plug lead position in the distributor cap for the cylinder you need to adjust the valves on .

Personally, this sounds too clean. I always adjusted valves with the engine hot and running and splashing oil all over my hands and the engine bay.

Keep us posted. I may ship over one of these carbs when done to have you try it. If it works, a chock hidden under the dash may not be a bad deal until we find a decent 1100 with auto choke to rebuild.

[falcon cobra]

Hi gina, has anyone looked down the carb to see if the pump works ? and does it just quit and needs to be restarted or just don't go when the foot goes down ? ...jh

[Luva65wagon]

Gina,

Have been awaiting a report of some kind from you about whether you had any luck after bringing it home. Any news?

Also, I finally got the parts I needed to build another carb, though as I indicated it would be a manual choke carb since that is all I had.

Sadly I scavenged so much off of my wagon to bring over to yours, my wagon has not been reassembled to the point of testing this new carb. I really should do that just to be sure rather than just sending it. But, if you've had luck with that other carb, there may be no need.

I also won a bid for another of the correct 1100 Autolite carbs off eBay the other night - though when all is said and done it will cost me about $180 once I have a new kit into it. I felt it is worth having another of the right styles available. Just crossing my fingers it is not a pile when it shows up. And if it is not needed I can sell it on eBay for almost $400 rebuilt. So it will not be a loss for me regardless.

Please keep us posted.

[Luva65wagon]

Hi gina, has anyone looked down the carb to see if the pump works ? and does it just quit and needs to be restarted or just don't go when the foot goes down ? ...jh

The report I had from Steve was it ran fine cold, but as soon as it warmed up it would run bad, then die. I thought maybe carb at the time we left, but it presented other possibilities with the OK cold, not-so hot, scenario. That's why I suggested maybe checking the valves again. I set them to .019 cold thinking they's go to about .015/.016 hot, but I read online I maybe should have gone wider (.020/.021) cold.

We were somewhat delirious by the time we all left that night and did not really have the time to scrutinize every little bit of it. Hind-sight being 20/20 I really should have halted and added another day to the project instead of sending her off. But it didn't let her get too far away as it was and we were going to follow her anyway, so it worked out that she didn't get too far down the road.

[SmithKid]

Gina, what's going on with the Comet (several of us worked on it and are wondering)? Haven't heard anything about it except from Steve and Roger in the last 10 days or so.

[Jeff W]

Gina, what's going on with the Comet (several of us worked on it and are wondering)? Haven't heard anything about it except from Steve and Roger in the last 10 days or so.

Some us that couldn't make the trip over to help are also wondering