Rusty Fifty One

Friday: Bryan and I fire it up and after a minute of rough idling the water pump blows. Sprayed coolant everywhere. Luckily, I have that spare motor with a working pump and Autozone had the gaskets in stock. So, we drain everything, pull the radiator and replace the pump. Went smooth, no leaks.

Saturday: Greg comes over and we start trouble shooting the fuel issue. Flow is a trickle at the carburetor. After a beer and another trip to Autozone for a fuel pump gasket, we pull the 62 year old mechanical glass bowl fuel pump off the spare motor to replace the cheap 20yr old aftermarket pump on the “running” motor. I figured I should open up the pump we’re using and clean it out a bit before installing, so I do and, POP!, there goes the sixty-two year old bell shaped top cap that holds the glass bowl on. Gone. Can’t find it anywhere. Did I mention it was SIXTY-TWO years old. No replacement parts. Then I remember that I have another non-working but complete fuel pump in the basement in a box of parts from the previous owner. Problem solved. Pump cleaned, reassembled and installed. Still no flow at the carb but the bowl eventually fills and the fuel is clean. It filled slowly so we know the issue has to be upstream which means a clogged line or tank outlet. We push the ol’ bitch the rest of the way out of the garage, slide under and there it is! Some farmer, in what had to be the 60’s or so, cut the metal line and installed a directional fuel filter the size of a softball. We pull it off and there isn’t much flow out of the tank above us. I point the filter down and the fuel is clear but pink, point it the other way and red sand. The whole thing was full of rust. I swear the previous owner told me the tank had been relined or at least cleaned out … oh well, no worries. I replaced the old filter with a cheapie from Autozone, turned it over and immediately we got a quarter beer bottle at the carb. Flow restored! We button everything up, Greg heads home and Bryan comes back over. We reset the timing. She idles well again. I spun her around the block. Ride was shaky, almost stalled a couple times but things are looking up! I’ll just keep replacing the fuel filters every couple drives until they stop getting cloudy.

Should be running by the weekend or next week.

Scratch that and add, weather permitting, one more week. Looks like I’m still leaking coolant at that fitting on the oil line that runs thru the block and main cooling jacket. Not a big deal, sept the fitting is in the pushrod case, which is also the oil return from the valvetrain that feeds the lifters, cam and partial to the crank.

Had to order a new copper line and brass fittings last night. Luckily they’re coming from a shop in state so I should get everything by Saturday sometime.

WOO HOOO!! Got the valve unstuck! Now I just gotta discretely drain 17gal of gas somewhere, seal up a slight coolant leak and get it all back together.

A first for me… Got to use a handcrank to spin the crank shaft and work the valve train after dumping a bunch of solvent into the cylinders and onto the valve stems.

After a series of bad storms with tornadoes and almost constant rain I finally got out to the garage to wrench for a bit. Drained the oil, pulled the valve and push rod covers and discovered a bent rod and slight coolant leak. Gonna pull and clean the pan this coming week/weekend and order a new set of rods. Then when I have it all clean and I find the bind that bent the rod, I’ll fill’er up with a 5qt 80/20 mix of zinc heavy 20w-50 racing oil/Marvel Mystery Oil and also run a couple oz’s of Marvel thru the gas tank.