Well, ole 71 back up to its tricks! When it was put in the driveway and shut off all was good, started it yesterday and only have about 50% of the vacuum it had when shut down.

Monday morning off to the transmission shop. Will try the back flush Tim Suggested on the carburetor, hope to find the vacuum leak and get the accelerator pump working before then!

Re-checked the fuel usage and it calculated to 7.5 MPH for the trip! Believe that engine is not used to having a 4-barrel Carburetor bogs ,when one floors it, really likes running on just 2 barrels. Secondaries might be a bit over or under jetted for this engine.

Vacuum leaks: if you hadn't already replaced the rubber hoses, do so. Take the distributor cap off, but a hose on the vacuum advance canister and apply vacuum to it. You should see the distributor rotor move; if not, the vacuum advance canister is the leak. With the engine running, spray some ether in small amounts at likely leak locations, if you hear the engine speed up, you found a leak.

Likes running on two barrels: perhaps get the engine warm, and advance/retard the ignition timing, so that idling is barely possible, and run it up a hill. Perhaps if you find a condition where the run up the hill is better, you just learned something about where the vacuum advance wants to be set or limited.

Your carburetor was set up for a different engine, with some different vacuum characteristics. When you are in "four barrel mode" you should hear a different distinctive type of roar from the air being sucked in the through the carburetor. If you don't, it might mean that the vacuum in the engine is not sufficient for opening the "secondary doors". A spring sets that operating point. It took me several trials to get that right.

Are you running a points ignition or an HEI? I've also read many testimonials to the MSD "multiple spark discharge" ignition systems. GM designed these engines around a different formulation of gasoline, and sometimes "more things to spend money on" will help.

You probably already answered this earlier, but is your mechanical fuel pump giving you good pressure? Is there an electric pump in the tank? Are the fuel lines solid (I've seen rubber hoses get sucked shut, I've seen rusty steel lines suck air in), is the fuel filter in the carburetor clean, is there another filter in line?

[a rusty fuel line sucking air will show up as a fuel pressure issue under high demand, and when the engine is off, the fuel line will be damp with fuel, or drip for a little bit]

Your victory is certain!

Matt

The accelerator pump problem is fixed. Turned out either the diaphragm did not like the gas in 71 or our Iowa 87 octane 10% ethanol fuel. This fuel is 50 cents cheaper than leadfree due to Iowa corn being used and a state tax break. The pump was stuck all the way down the material in the diaphragm had swollen and locked it down. Hope the replacement diaphragm holds up, works ok now.

The engine not liking the secondary of the carburetor is another stupid error, either me or the engine replacement guys must have banged the secondary fuel rod holder bent it pretty badly and knocked one of the rods out of its jet. Only saw this because of the accelerator pump problem. Was able to straighten the holder-actuator, the rod and jet seem to be undamaged. Put it all back together and all runs well, have not taken it on the road and warmed up the engine, not sure how the 4-barrel is working, will wait until the transmission is fixed, or maybe on the trip to the transmission shop Monday.

On my way to the transmission guy this morning, floored ole 71 and had the response of a 4 barrel Rochester and that classic "lions Roar". That was a pleasant surprise.

Talked to the transmission guy about putting in a th700 replacing the th400, he said they probably have one but the cost would be pretty high, maybe over $3k. There are lots of control revisions and the drive shaft will need reworking. He said the best way to go is with a Gear Vendors overdrive unit, about the same price and better longevity.

Wonder how long this fix will take??

Not that many years ago, I always bragged on the service received on my vehicles here in Clinton. The case with ole 71 has not followed suite. The engine change folks were really a big disappointment both on quality, price and delivery. Now the transmission guy is following in their footsteps. This same guy 10 or so years ago did a similar repair on my Winnebago, he did it in a good time frame and a reasonable price. What's happened? He has had ole 71 for going on two weeks, says it's too hot to crawl under it, but he seems to ok working under other vehicles. Still not able to get a solid answer on when they are going to do it, but probably not before the 4th holiday. I blame it all on Covid!!

Best service so far was the exhaust shop in Minnesnowta. Had my daily driver in for brake lines and that guy took over a week. charged me a fortune, well it is a Mercedes, but it is 13 years old.

This thing called age has limited my desire to do these jobs myself, guess it is just the way things are these days.

Maybe some better news:

Sidetracked as usual, but I should have your water heater ready to ship next week. Crate is done, just need to box it and drop off to shipper. Still checking prices. You'll be back in hot water soon!

Have Barth, resting now.

quote:

This thing called age has limited my desire to do these jobs myself

We gotta look at it as "occupational therapy". I know too many guys to say something like "I have nothing left to do but die".

There is still too much living to do!!!!

Matt

My biggest problem is that I can only work half as fast and half as long as I used to. So when I left "things to do when I retired" I didn't think it would take 4 times as long to catch up! I don't start new projects now, just trying to catch up on old ones!

Choose youe battles wisely. It is nice to have projects to work on when you only have to work on them when you feel like it. Your coach will be ready soon.

Steve, are claiming to be halffast?
I betcha Duane and I now take longer to think about doing things than it used to take us to do them.

Seems like my friends in the south are always "fixing" to do something. That's me now. I'm "fixing" to do a lot of things but not quite getting to them.

Every time I think I'm gaining, a storm comes through, knocks down a tree, or the truck needs an oil change, or the coach needs work....

Tim is right!!

The transmission guy has been fixing to start my transmission repair for over 2 weeks and he finally got to it!!!!

Said all the gaskets and seals were old hard and leaking, and there was a lot of clutch dust in the oil pan. A new torque converter, pump, and clutch plates along with gaskets and seals and 71 should be back on the road! My pockets of course will be empty!

Should have 71 back on the 3rd, anyone going anywhere and have an extra space for my dog and me??

Looks like at least 2 weeks maybe 3 before I can declare boating season Steve and Duane keep sending water to keep the Mississippi high and it can't hardly drain because the Missouri is taking up space downstream. So far the Illinois isn't a contributing factor but it isn't drying up either.
Duane sounds like we may both be able to need to buy fuel before the snow flies again.

Got ole 71 back yesterday, my pockets are empty, but the rebuilt transmission is really nice, better shifting, rpm at speed seems to have dropped a bit, so any slippage is gone. he replaced a bunch of parts, painted the thing too! No more leaks! Rebuilt engine and transmission, should be good for a hundred thousand miles!!

About 10 years ago, had a similar repair done by the same shop on my Winnebago this time the price is almost 3 times that cost!!

Time to get the water heater replaced (thank you Steve and Ed), clean the fuel line to the generator and get the fridge running. Think the front shocks need changing too.

Tim, it's all Dana's fault that the river is high, just hit flood here, access gates have been closed, and the water is back upped into the lowing lying parking lots.

Met up with Jim Roller yesterday and got thee water heater from Steve and Ed.

Today and the next few are going to be in the 90F+ range, to hot for me to work on ole 71, so a few days of A/C and online poker will occupy my time.

Had a couple of health concerns so did not get around to installing the water heater until today. Grandson came down and we got the old one out, that was the biggest part of the job. The replacement slipped right in, and we did get the gas line installed.

Because this heater has electronic ignition, it needs a switch and some new wiring that needs to be figured out and the water lines need to be hooked up. At this time not going to hook up the lines for engine heating.

Still have not tracked down the fuel supply problem to the generator engine!!!

Did buy new front shocks and installed them, the same coil over design that I used on Nose and 86, they are not high performance but better than what was in those and this Barth.