True Tales of the Super Snipe -- Episode 8: I want to choke you
During the summer months when I was discouraged and just doing "busy work", I took time to do some cleaning. One thing was the spark plug wires, which appeared to be good quality but were covered in dirt and crud. I figured that a clean distributer cap and wires would be less likely to cause misfiring problems. It also let me say that I was doing something productive. The end result was the best looking part of the engine:
The original mechanical fuel pump had apparently failed, and had been replaced with an electric pump. Like the gas tank, it was filled with crud, but a disassembly and thorough cleaning made it as good as new. That is, however, after it failed to work and I discovered that I had assembled part of it 180 degrees off. At least I discovered this on the bench rather than on the car. This pump is gigantic by today's standards:
With the fuel pump back in the car, it was time for a preliminary test. A temporary gas tank (an old coffee can with a length of plastic tube) and a set of clip leads led to... a massive flow of gasoline out of the carburetor! Not Good.
Up to this point I had not touched or carefully examined the carburetor. After all, "carburetor" is a French word meaning "Don't f*** with it!" But faced with this problem, I threw caution to the winds and dove in. It was then that I discovered that nothing on the carburetor moved -- not the choke, not the throttle shaft, nothing. The years had taken their toll. Since I couldn't make the situation any worse, I removed it from the car and took it home.
The Super Snipe Workshop Manual identified it as a Zenith 42 WIA, and even had complete disassembly instructions. Perhaps there was hope after all.
Removing the top of the carburetor revealed one of the reasons nothing would move:
In the Old Days, the cleaner of choice was Berryman 905. It would dissolve the skin right off your hands, but did a decent job on baked-on engine crud. It contains a witch's brew of the most noxious solvents known, but it worked. Needless to say, you can't buy it in California any more. You can buy something with a similar name and description, but it isn't the same by a long shot.
But the real stuff still exists in certain parts of the country where, for a (large) price, they will ship a can to you. And it is a large price: a 5 gallon pail cost well over $100, plus shipping. And UPS won't touch it -- it had to come by freight, on a pallet. Fortunately, I had forseen the need and it was already in my garage.
Between the Berryman 905, plain old paint thinner, a Harbor Freight ultrasonic cleaner, and lots of compressed air, I made progress. It took an evening and an entire Saturday to clean the carburetor out. Some of the internal parts (see above photo) were totally frozen in place. With Kroil penetrating oil, a tiny hammer, and lots of tap, tap, tap, tap, everything was eventually freed up.
The manual says, "assembly is the reverse of disassembly." Yeah, right. It is unless you have managed to lose a (very) tiny cotter pin, and a tiny circlip (e-clip) flys off into the dark recesses of the garage. Not to mention the fact that new gaskets are unobtanium. The old ones will have to do until I know that it is worth the time to make my own new ones. But eventually it all went back together, everything moved properly, and it actually looks good:
But will it work? That is the big question. Find out in our next episode!
Next: The Moment Of Truth
"I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!"
IOE winner in the Super Snipe -- Buttonwillow 2012
IOE winner in Super Snipe v2.0 -- Buttonwillow 2016
"Every Super Snipe in Lemons has won an IOE!"