Hi, all,
I finally got everything together to attempt to crank the '71B. The PO
had told me that he had attempted to crank it but he couldn't get any
spark from the coil. He figured it was faulty.
I saw an aftermarket fuel pump mounted underneath the rear passenger
area (this will change), so I unhooked the wires to disable it. I then
disconnected the fuel line at the carbs. I made a temporary siphon feed
from a gas can.
I pulled the plugs and put just a "pinch" of Marvel air tool oil in each
cylinder. I couldn't find my Mystery oil. The plugs looked new, no sign
of fouling, so I put them back in.
I hooked up a 12 volt battery with jumper cables and got my daughter to
turn the key while I worked in the engine compartment. When she turned
the engine over, I would get one good spark out of the coil, and then a
very poor spark. Definitely not enough to bridge a plug gap.
I had my doubts about the points. 8 yrs with no use. I popped the
distributor cap. The points appeared to function properly, but I made
and broke them several times by hand. I then tested coil spark again. It
appeared improved. I cleaned the points and got a good spark from the
coil. So much for the PO's idea of a bad coil.
I asked my daughter to slowly mash the gas pedal so I could see how the
linkage worked and that nothing was frozen. Everything OK. Now I asked
her to pull gently on the choke knob. It was stuck. When I figured out
where the cable went I tried to choke the carbs myself. No luck. I
decided to try cranking her up anyway.
I had Crystie pump the accelerator about a dozen times. When she turned
the engine over it FIRED! I immediately made her get out of MY car and I
slowly cajoled the engine into running. Very rough at first but as it
warmed up it ran smooth as silk at 2k rpm and above. Wouldn't idle
though. Good oil pressure.
All of a sudden the oil pressure needle fell to zero and stayed there. I
immediately killed the engine. I pulled the oil filler cap and looked
inside the valve cover as my daughter cranked the engine. I couldn't see
any oil splashing around. Should I?
The oil looked thick and dirty. I was going to drain it after I warmed
the engine. Tomorrow I will drain the oil and mix a little Mystery oil
with the 20w50. Is it possible for oil sludge to stop an oil pump like
that? If so, is there any way to resurrect it?
Oh, one other thing I noticed about this car. The bonnet had been
removed. I noticed it was particularly easy to lift when I put it in my
truck bed. I just got around to taking it out today and looking at it.
It has a couple of dings in it and some paint missing. I noticed the
metal was a peculiar color. On a hunch I pulled my daughters
newly-acquired air vent cover, the magnetic kind, off and tried sticking
it on the bonnet. No luck, it is made of aluminum. Didn't I read
somewhere that aluminum bonnets were discontinued on the B around '68 or
so? Can aluminum be worked like steel panels? Looking forwarded to
hearing yall's opinions!
Regards,
Mark in MS
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