My high school English teacher taught me many things but the one that she repeated most often was “only a fool is positive” [about something]. When I last wrote I was pretty sure (but definitely not positive) that the problem had been identified. That is, it was the modification to the fuel system that we made prior to this trip. Well, sure as heck, it failed at the next gas stop with the clamped off modification. We pushed on through the bad running for a minute or two and then got on our way to the rally where I could discuss this with some experts – guys that have been working on cars and engines their whole lives.
The problem – only occurring at gas stations – stumped all of the experts. All of the experts suggested that I remove the carburetor filter. Nothing else that was suggested was something that I had not already done. On Monday morning after the goodbye meeting I got to work and removed the filter. In the process I was unable to get the line hooked up again so I plugged the hole in the filter housing with a plug from the auto parts store. I clamped the hose so that tank vapors would not escape through it and we left for Colorado Springs.
We ran well – it was only an hour or so – and did not stop for gas but… When we got off the interstate highway we had to wait a long time at a light and we fought vapor issues the rest of the way to the campground. Even stalled going down a long steep hill and had a hard time starting again. I have an auxiliary vacuum pump and I have been hearing it fairly often at these altitudes so we were probably safe but not wanting to find out.
When we got to the campground parking lot we could smell fuel. I checked the top of the engine and found no leaks but did hear the fuel boiling in the carburetor with the air cleaner off. The engine seemed especially hot to me even though the operating temperature was OK according to the guage. Seems the super capacity radiator is doing a good job and just working a little harder than usual. There are two potential reasons for my engine to be hotter than normal and that would be engine timing and the fan clutch. I think the fan clutch is OK but I knew that the distributor had a problem and just ignored it – actually, I forgot about it but I should have fixed it before we left.
This is the view from just above our camp site. Being a state park the sites are far apart and it is nice and quiet
I took the distributor out, disassembled it, cleaned and lubed it. One of the posts that holds the advance weight springs was loose so I tried to make it tighter – we’ll see if I succeeded.
At the rally one of those experts said fixing the problem in the distributor would take no time at all and that I should just sit down and do it with the simple instructions he gave me. The reason this has bubbled to the top now is that the problem in the distributor is the mechanical advance mechanism was not working the way it should. It was sticky. The weights could not move the way that they are supposed to. If the timing on an engine is too advanced that can cause it to run hot. If the distributor was too advanced and not able to adjust to driving conditions that might cause higher temperatures. Today I took the distributor out, disassembled and cleaned it so that the advance did was it was supposed to. The whole job took me about an hour and that included trying to fasten a part that had come loose.
This is a must-see natural wonder – it is free.
After the distributor repair in the morning and some laundry and errands that Carol had to do we went to Garden of the Gods Park – a must-see natural wonder. In the evening we went out with Carol and Gordie from our Winter RV group who also were at Pueblo and are headed to Rapid City. They are the ones who told us about this park.
Good German food in Colorado Springs
Tomorrow we plan to drive about 200 miles I think. I’ll let you know what happens.
