carbdoc

Restorer 32, I will give this method a try! Since the car is my wire's, I will "accidentally" forget to tell her that I have placed the black snake inside. This should result in a good story . . . and a good beating for me! 😆 Jeff

Thanks!

dictator27, how does the Animal b gon max smell?

I need new car covers for two of my cars (1970 Chrysler 300, 1976 Olds Cutlass Salon). These are decent cars (1 HPOF, 1 DPC) that live under a carport and have historically been covered with soft California Car Cover Stormweave covers (IIRC --- CCCC names have all changed now). If you have looked at the current prices on CCCC 😵, you will understand why I am posting this query. So: has anyone had a good experience with any affordable soft outdoor car covers for big cars such as these . . . covers that are NOT made of scratchy, plastic-y dropcloth-type material? Jeff

Unfortunately, it will also keep ME away from the ca's interior; I can't stand the smell of that soap, either! 😄

Thanks, John. Jeff

Bill, Thanks. Don't worry; I won't use poison. I have cats. Jeff

chistech, I disagree about the absence of dead mouse odor. I once had a 1961 Chrysler that smelled so badly that I could hardly stand to drive it; I eventually found the huge vacant nest (complete with dead "resident") beneath the rear seat. I removed it; problem solved. Thanks, Dave. They have also nested in our HVAC blower plenum, so I am familiar with this problem as well. They use the car's own interior insulation material as well as paper napkins kept in the glove box for material; no more napkins in there now. You and Graham Man bring up an excellent point: I don't want them leaving the car with a belly full of poison and potentially poisoning my cats or wildlife. Jeff

Thanks, guys. I was thinking more along the lines of repelling them rather than killing them since I don't want them to die in an inaccessible part of the car, but these products could be a possibility if I can't come up with anything else.

Mice have been nesting in the glove box of our 1987 BMW 325e on a regular basis for some time now. I clean them out, and back they come (perhaps they never "left" but simply migrated elsewhere in the car; I don't know). The car in question is an HPOF vehicle and it is actually driven fairly often, so this is even more of a mystery to me . . . and I don't seem to have this problem with our other cars. So: what can I put in the glove box (or anywhere in the car) that will keep them out? I would rather not go the "mothballs route" if possible. Jeff Dreibus

I finally found the pages I needed --- here they are! http://restorecarsclassifieds.com/wiki/search.php?action=articles_simple&phrase=1934+stromberg+downdraft+carburetor+jet+specifications&search_kind=and After much trial and error, I searched "1934 stromberg downdraft carburetor jet specifications" on the restorecarsclassifieds site and that is what I got. I suppose that similar results could be obtained searching other years/brands of carburetors as needed. Thanks to everyone for their responses! Jeff Dreibus The Old Carb Doctor

Thanks, Viv. What I am working on is a Stromberg EE-22 10-6 for 1934 Packard Super 8. It is sizes of all jets and power valve drilling in which I am most interested. Jeff

The Old Carb Doctor needs some help! I hope everyone is able to see the document below; sorry that the print is so tiny. It is Stromberg Downdraft Carburetor Jet Specifications page #C-158 from some 1937 manual whose coverage goes back to 1931, but I do not know who published the manual (Stromberg itself, perhaps?). This page was accessed through restorecarsclassifieds.com, but they don't seem to have all of the other pages and, as it happens, the info I currently need should be on page C-159! I need to know who published the manual and what they called it (perhaps it covered more than just carburetors?) so that I can search for one and buy it. Does anyone recognize this format? Jeff Dreibus The Old Carb Doctor

Your are probably right, Bloo, but I have to laugh at the idea of "higher-performance compounds" used in modern tires. Today we are lucky to get six years out of new tires as opposed to the decade-plus that the older tires would usually hang in there. Jeff

PFitz, Thanks. It may indeed have been hot at the bottom of the bowl but the the primary bores were definitely cool since it was percolating out of the bowl and condensing in the throttle bores. This was obvious because rivulets of gasoline were dripping out from around the primary shaft. I remember carburetor icing. It used to happen to me when I was a young man living in northern Virginia; I would have to get out and drive my '65 Plymouth Satellite (273 2-bbl) to work on cold winter mornings and the carburetor would start giving me problems. When I checked, it would look like a ball of ice! I never did figure out a solution beyond letting it sit and melt; congrats on solving yours. Jeff Dreibus

Edinmass, Thanks. You may be correct about the 15 percent ethanol, although I suspect that it was a mistake on the part of the gasoline hauler since Quality Plus advertises nothing above 10 percent ethanol content. I would feel like a total hypocrite if I changed the car over to F.I.; I actually restore carburetors for a living and there has to be some way to overcome this problem. I'm going to install a 1/4" phenolic spacer beneath the Oldsmobile's carb and see if that helps . . . although I doubt that I will notice the difference so long as I don't accidentally get another tankful of ethanol-laced gasoline. What you have noted may explain a trend I have been seeing lately in my work: I am getting fewer downdraft carburetors as time goes by. The majority of my workload is now comprised of updraft carburetors from earlier cars. With a few exceptions, they are mounted low on the side of the engine and are exposed to far less heat unless an exhaust component runs directly beneath them --- plus there is no practical way to replace them with F.I. unless you replace the entire engine itself (sadly all too common today). Jeff Dreibus

I have worked in fuel systems for 30 years, but this is the first time I have ever seen anything like this:This morning (which was cool so the A/C was not in use) we had driven my wife's 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass Salon with 350 4-bbl about 15 miles at moderate speeds when it began stalling at idle, requiring me to re-start it with the gas pedal to the floor. When we could safely pull off the road, I opened the hood, removed the air cleaner . . . and was greeted by a QuadraJet carburetor that was boiling to beat the band but which was barely warm to the touch! I had never seen anything like it. I'd call it "heat soak" --- except that there was very little heat involved!We use only 93 octane ethanol-free gas in that car (from a local chain here in western NC called Quality Plus Gashouse) and we have never had a problem with it in any vehicle. My only surmise is that either I pushed to wrong button on the gas pump or somebody put gasohol into in the wrong underground tank at the station. Still, even though gasohol boils at a lower temp than "pure" gas, this was ridiculous --- I could very comfortably "hug" the carburetor with both hands for as long as I wished!We proceeded to the nearest Quality Plus and filled the less-than-1/4-full tank with 15 gallons of 93 octane E-free . . . and before too long all was back to normal. What the heck is going on? Has anyone else had an experience such as this? Or am I the only "lucky" one?Jeff Dreibus Nebo, NC

Thanks to everyone for the advice! I soldered a wire to the lamp socket and a loop terminal to the other end of the wire, then reinstalled the assembly with the one of the retainer screws (which screws into a body ground) though the loop terminal. I used a liberal amount of dielectric grease at all connection points . . . and now my Chrysler's park/turn lamp works great!

Thanks, Frank; this is on an HPOF car . . . so they don't pay quite as much attention. Besides, I'm very resourceful about making "stealth modifications" . . . 😉

Much appreciated, Matthew and Joe! A local friend suggested this same fix to me after I posted this . . . strange how we can often be oblivious to the obvious. And by the way, Joe: my first car was a '62 Olds 98, black and silver with silver interior, that I bought from a neighbor for $100 --- the proverbial "$100 Car"! Great memories . . . Jeff

And now for the stupid question of the day: Every year or so, I have to remove the front parking/turn signal lenses from my 1970 Chrysler 300 and use a center punch to stake around each bulb socket flange where it was peined over the lamp housing. This is because it loses all ground between said steel socket and pot-metal housing. I know that there must be a simple way to repair this problem permanently but, even though I'm a pretty resourceful guy, the solution has evaded me. Any suggestions . . ?

I once had this problem with a '63 Buick 401; it turned out to be a worn shaft key in the harmonic balancer's keyway. Remove the bolt and washer from the balancer and try to "rock" it back and forth on the shaft by hand; you'll know pretty quick if that's the problem. And when you reinstall the bolt and washer, be sure to torque it to spec (or just as tight as you can get it!).

Tinindian, The problem isn't making the float out of cork; the problem is keeping the needle's counterweights from wearing out their contact surface on top of the float. PFitz, Thanks for the link! I have traded with RSC for years but I have never seen that page with those items on it. I'm sure that I will be able to use some of them in the future, but I am leery about unsealed Nitrophyl (after it is shaped) and I don't know what to use as a sealant. Moreover, see above concern about abrasion by float counterweights. Jeff

Is anyone reproducing the drum-shaped floats with a center hole for the Zenith 04 updraft carburetor? Here are the specs: 1-13/16" diameter 1-3/8" high 3/16" center bore 7/32" relief "dish" in each end Thanks to any who might know. Jeff Dreibus

Thanks, Ray! Jeff