Carb Adjustment

I just bought a 1950 Chrysler Windsor flathead 6 with a Fluid drive. This is my first antique car and have rebuilt it by books alone however i am stuck now Carb Problems I think. Things I have done Rebuilt the engine adjusted the valves and timing. New plugs, wires, cables, fuel filters, condensor, point, however when I reach speeds of about 50mph the car wants to shut off on me I was thinking the carb is not adjusted properly so how will I know if I have the right air and fuel mixture setting?

Hey victor I don't know if this will help but I have a 51 with a gyro-matic and I had the carb rebuilt and every time I would reach about 40 to 50 mph it was like the engine was starving for gas so after trying many things I took off the rod going to the dash pot on top of the carb and Ihaven't had a problem since.

Try running it without the gas-cap... a blocked or restricted vent in the gas cap can cause fuel starvation at high speeds...

Another possibility is a kinked or rust-perforated fuel line from the tank: might not have big enough holes to drip fuel on the ground, but large enough (or numerous enough) to compromise the "suction" on the fuel from the tank...

Also, if your car has the "oil-lite" filter element inside the tank, if this is clogged due to rust/varnish or there's enough water accumulated in the tank due to condensation, this will reduce fuel flow from the tank... had this issue with my '48 NYer...

Have you re-built the carb ? If so, and everything was in good condition inside ( jets clear, metering rods not bent), and the float is set correctly, there's really not much in the way of adjustment that should affect high-speed operation...

When I first put my '48 NYer on the road after a twenty-year hibernation, I had plenty of fuel system problems for the first six-months / couple thousand miles... one of the weirder ones was during a visit home to my parents' during college... we took a drive out the country for a nice Sunday dinner, enjoying the beautiful autumn colors of central MD, and on the way home, on Interstate 70, the car began to starve for fuel at cruising speed... I had over 1/2 a tank of fuel, so I knew we weren't running out of gas...

I pulled-over to the shoulder, and the car stalled. It restarted immediately, and idled fine... so I got-up speed on the shoulder, and got back on the highway... by about 40 mph, the car started to die again... I floored the accelerator, and the car picked-up again for a few seconds, then starved again... I began to suspect that the high-speed jets in the carb were clogged, so I let off on the accelerator, then floored it again: the car surged forward until the charge from the accelerator pump had burned-up... and so it went, the rest of the way home... basically running on the accelerator pump. (Mom was sea-sick by the time we pulled-up to the house).

The next day, I opened-up the carb (since I had a 200 mile drive back to school in this relic), and found the carb bowl full of "red mud" : rust ! The only jets that would function were the idle and accelerator pump. Now, I had rebuilt this carb before putting the car on the street... so I took the carb off, flushed it out and blew-out the passages with air, put it all back together, and installed a Fram GF-2 inline fuel filter between the pump and the carb.

The car ran fine for the first hundred miles or so, then started starving for fuel again... I had to pull-over on I-83, remove the new fuel filter, knock the rust out of it, put it back, get undder way again... etc.

I continued to have rust issues with the fuel system in this car until I dropped the tank, had it boiled-out by a local radiator shop, and installed ANOTHER fuel-filter, on the tank side of the pump... this largely solved the rust problems, and I drove that car another 40,000 miles with minimal fuel system issues...

I share all of this mostly to illustrate that there can be a myriad of "odd" problems with old cars and fuel systems... go through the WHOLE system methodically, and check it all out, making sure plumbing is clear and air/fluid-tight, pumps and carbs are adjusted, etc.

I have had similar fuel problems with my 1960 Chrysler Windsor, and my '64 Valiant... oddly enough, outside of having to replace the fuel pump on my '41 De Soto (leakage), I have had no fuel system issues with that jalopy....

Good luck with your Windsor !

Frank McMullen

Do you know where i can purchase a carb for my Windsor? Fluid Drive transmission?

I had major carb problems with my '50 Dodge Wayfarer. Finally sent it off to www.carburetorexchange.com and they professionally rebuilt it. Came back looking like new and all I had to do was bolt it back on and hook it up. Only thing I had to adjust was the idle (in fact, they told me not to try and adjust anything else as it had been pre-set before shipping. Cost about $175. But was it ever worth it! Car ran file. Still does almost 2 years later. I did install a fuel filter between the fuel pump & carb. Would advise this. Good luck! I once owned a Windsor of your vintage but that was a long time ago... 1960 to be exact!

The most likely cause of your problem is a plugged up fuel filter or plugged fuel line. Second most likely, a weak fuel pump. Third most likely, a gas line leak.

If there is dirt and rust in your fuel system then you may need to clean the carb as well as fix the original problem. But the chance that the problem is a bad carb, would be about 10 or 12 down on the list of possible causes. Right behind bad points or other ignition fault.

Not trying to start anything, just trying to give you the benefit of many years working on old cars. Start by checking for dirt in the fuel filter, bad gas line, or bad fuel pump. Those are the most likely cause of your problem.

The most likely cause of your problem is a plugged up fuel filter or plugged fuel line. Second most likely, a weak fuel pump. Third most likely, a gas line leak.

If there is dirt and rust in your fuel system then you may need to clean the carb as well as fix the original problem. But the chance that the problem is a bad carb, would be about 10 or 12 down on the list of possible causes. Right behind bad points or other ignition fault.

Not trying to start anything, just trying to give you the benefit of many years working on old cars. Start by checking for dirt in the fuel filter, bad gas line, or bad fuel pump. Those are the most likely cause of your problem.

AGREED,DIRT IS A LARGE PROBLEM. MIGHT WANT TO DOUBLE CHECK THE FLOAT ADJUSTMENT TOO, EVEN A REBUILT CARB MAY NOT BE SET CORRECTLY.

RW thanks for the vote of confidence but the thread is over 5 years old. I expect the questioner has got it fixed by now.