Around the first of this year I took ownership of a 71 B roadster
from my neighbor, who had it for a year and a half in his garage
gathering dust. Took 5 hours to get it started and across the
street to my place. After a few hours of looking and fixing, it
actually ran fairly well. I took the wife to Yosemite the first
of May (Yosemite in an open car - WOW!). The B ran okay but had a
mild flat spot on acceleration - probably just needs the SU's checked
out I think. (Forty years ago I was pretty good at tuning SU
carbs as I spent three years building and maintaining a Bugeye Sprite
for the owner/driver). Read the Bentley manual a couple of times
and went to work. I pulled the float tops off and checked
inside. No needle valves but some sort ball valve mechanism
(Grose-Jet?) that seemed to work okay but was not set at 1/8 inch float
level per Bentley. I put the floats back on the carbs, but
managed to connect the fuel inlet to the bowl vent pipe the first time
- had gas coming out the jets. Okay, just put things back to
where they were supposed to be and proceed on. Now, what's the
next step? Oh yes, warm the car up before beginning the mixture
adjustment.
Well, it did not run well when I took it out for a
short spin (hey what the heck, I knew the carbs were off a bit - what
did I expect?) I got back to my garage and proceeded to do the
steps according to Bentley. When I finished, the idle was better and the two carbs
were in synch according to my old UniSyn. Lookin'
good! I offer to take the wife out for lunch as a trial
spin. We live in the foothills and everything is downhill.
The B acts like it is not getting enough fuel on the downhill and is
lacking power. We got downtown to the Post Office to mail some
letters and that is as far as we got. The engine would not run
off idle. Opened the hood and found no gas in the fuel
filter. The filter is plugged, I think. Lucky me, the Post
Office is at the other end of the block from an auto parts store that
sells me a new Fram fuel finter just like the one on the car.
Unfortunately, it does not change anything and the engine still does
not run off idle and the filter bowl remains empty. We go home on
a string.
Aha! It must be the fuel pump. I will
order one from Moss and fix the problem and we will be back on the road
in no time. Well, not quite. While poking around the front
end I happen to observe that the left front tire has no tread on the
inside edge, so along with the fuel pump, I order new bushings for the
front suspension. Then new A-arms. Then rebuilt
spindles. You know the drill. Oh yes, I did put the new
solid state fuel pump on too.
Unfortunately, the fuel filter remains empty. I have
taken the line off at the front carburetor and pumped into a container
with good fuel flow. I have also taken the vent line to the
charcoal canister off with no improvement. What could I have done
to the float assemblies to cause this problem? Is the
Grose-Jet float adjustment different than the needle and seat
unit? What should it be?
Oh, to be as young as I think I am.