Man, I love this car, but..................

[Joe R.]

Re: Man, I love this car, but..................

Russ, some very good info there. Thanks.

I am suspicious of the tank angle for filling. I did not fill at the same station, but I'll try your idea next time.

One thing is for certain; she does run rich. All 6 of my plugs are black, and the Vette behind me on Sat. said his eyes were watering from my exhaust!

Joe

[Roy B.]

Re: Man, I love this car, but..................

Russ, some very good info there. Thanks.

I am suspicious of the tank angle for filling. I did not fill at the same station, but I'll try your idea next time.

One thing is for certain; she does run rich. All 6 of my plugs are black, and the Vette behind me on Sat. said his eyes were watering from my exhaust!

Joe

Check your metering rods that they are adjusted correct and that the choke plates are open all the way when warmed up.

[Nick M.]

Re: Man, I love this car, but..................

Hey, I think that guy on the right looks like he may be qualified to run for some important political office!

[Jim L.]

Re: Man, I love this car, but..................

One thing is for certain; she does run rich. All 6 of my plugs are black, and the Vette behind me on Sat. said his eyes were watering from my exhaust!

I have a '54 that used to have a problem that sounds very similar. The problem is a design issue with the YH carburetors that results in the metering rods wearing which permits too much fuel to flow.

The rods wear because inside the YH there is a small spring that gently, but perpetually pushes the rod up against the bore of the jet. Over time, as the rod moves up and down, the lean/rich step wears away on one side of the rod. The result, at even .001 wear, is an overly rich condition.

I was lucky. I had a spare set of YH carbs and from them I robbed the jets and metering rods. When I installed the new(er) and less worn metering rods, I omitted the spring that was responsible for the wear.

After some shake down miles to make sure that I hadn't made a major goof by leaving out the spring, my son and I drove that '54 from Georgia to California. It ran fine.

Good luck,

Jim

[Joe R.]

Re: Man, I love this car, but..................

Jim, good point on the metering rods and jet. I lowered the rods to be slightly BELOW the top of the bowl, but never checked the jet below. Which spring are yu referring to that you removed? The big compression return spring or the tiny one that's on the top of the metering rod?

BTW, lowering the rods did make it run better.

Joe

[Jim L.]

Re: Man, I love this car, but..................

The spring I removed was, as I recall from 10 years ago, at the top of the metering rod where it's formed into a loop and hooks over an arm of some sort.

It was a fine wire spring and the only function that it seemed to perform was pushing the metering rod against the bore of the jet. Try as I might, I couldn't think of any good reason you'd want the rod and the jet to rub against each other. Given the damage it had caused, leaving it off was pretty much a no-brainer.

And to clear up a possible ambiguity from my earlier posting..... the installation of the less worn metering rods, significantly leaned a/f mixture seen by the engine.

Jim

[Joe R.]

Re: Man, I love this car, but..................

Jim, no ambiguity from my side. Your post is fully understood and appreciated.

This weekend I'll try pulling the springs and inspect the rods and jets. Thanks for the response. It's just too bad that there's 3 of everything in 54 carb-land.