Carbuerator work

Life has been interesting the last few months, including some work on Pearline.

Life got interesting in March. In my personal life, I got laid off from my job but I’m not freaking out about that. At least not yet. The severance was decent and I have a good network and plenty of savings.

I decided I needed a haircut one day, a few days after getting the not-so-unexpected news. It was a nice day, so I decided to drive Pearline to my regular barbershop about 8 miles (12 km) away. Everything was fine until I tried to restart the car after she had been sitting about half an hour. I could tell she was struggling on the drive, so I drove straight back home. I let her sit in the driveway a few hours before taking her back to the shop. Again, she started rough and I discovered a trail of fuel all the way back to my shop.

A few days later, I decided to figure out the problem. When I turned the ignition to “accessory”, I could hear the fuel pump building up pressure. If you have an old British roadster, you know the clicking sound. Usually, after 10 seconds the pressure builds up and the pump stops.

Only, it didn’t stop.

I could smell fuel and I discovered a steady stream of fuel coming from the charcoal cylinder. This is the thing to capture fuel vapors from the tank and fuel should not be coming from it. Over to MGEXP to ask the experts. The consensus was I had a stuck needle in the carbs. I tried the recommended percussive maintenance (aka, tapping it with a screwdriver handle) to no avail. So, I ordered a replacement needle and seat while calling Mike, my LBC mechanic, to ask if he had some time to work thru the carbs if I dropped them off.

Then, life got more interesting. I had an issue with my left eye requiring immediate surgery and a couple weeks recovery. I spent the time staring at the ceiling of a dark room, putting drops in my eyes every hour.

Meanwhile, Mike cracked open the carbs and told me the issue was not the needle, but rather the 53-years-young floats were leaking. So, with one eye, I ordered replacement floats. A few weeks later, I took the car on a trailer up to the shop and I learned how to properly maintain a set of SU HIF4 carbs. I’ll need to order a Hi-Flow Carb Synchrometer to do this at home.

It’s May and temps are nice. I’ve been driving Pearline around town and on short trips. Looking forward to the summer driving.