Engine and Transmission Tech

ok, car's been running great - been driving it all around town for a few weeks. Fuel gauge is off; ran out of gas today*. Bummed a gallon from a guy cutting his grass - car fired back up and drove home about 2-3 miles fine. Hour or so later went to take son to a friend's and car died before I got a half mile. Pulled the air cleaner and fuel is spewing in on both sides; even into the secondaries.

Edelbrock carb
symptoms exist with ignition/fuel pump on even before cranking
fuel pressure gauge is reading 5lbs.

removed needles & springs. No sign of problem.
pulled top of carb; floats are moving freely.

didn't remove/clean jets.

does it make sense that trash from the tank would cause a problem on both sides like that? Or that both floats would get knocked out of alignment?

what else would you check?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/2012 09:43PM by rficalora.

Junk in the inlet needle and seats.
Both float chambers are interconnected if one floods they both will.
Shouldn't have gotten past your filter though. might want to check that out.
Very rarely a float will puncture and sink but not very likely.
Carter/Edelbrock offer various sizes of inlet needle/seat assys. The smaller ones are less prone to getting stuck open and control the level better but be careful. You can go so small that the carb runs out of fuel @ full throttle. The trick is to use the smallest ones that will still give you enough fuel.
Cheers
Fred

In addition to Fred's recommendations, try adjusting the fuel pressure down a notch (or verifying <5psi).....My 600cfm Edelbrock wouldn't take any more than 4-5psi without flooding....resolved by a pressure adjustment and nothing else.

Cleaned the needles/seats. Didn't see anything but sprayed them with carb cleaner. Adjusted the floats while I had it open. They were really close so don't think that did anything. Also checked the fuel filter. It's a cleanable brass looking mesh inside. Didn't see any trash there either. Looked it up; it's a 40 micron filter. Reassembled and watched it for about a minute - no gas was visible so cranked it and it fired right up.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/2012 11:01PM by rficalora.

Rob, When you ran out of gas floats dropped too far binding needles. Isn't there a float drop tab?

That does happen on some carbs Jim. But the design of the Edelbrock carb doesn't lend itself to that problem.
The needle/seat assys are quite long and stable. And the floats are very long, reducing the operating arc that the needles would see. Thus giving them a straighter "push".

Thanks for the info Fred. I have had Carter AFB carbs(same as Edelbrock) but never had to go inside as they always worked well right out of the box. Same with the old Autolite shoebox carb. I've had lots of Holleys and they always give me something to cuss at!

I wasn't going to say "Holley" lest we upset the uninformed masses.
But I've never really understood the holley appeal.
They really aren't a very good carb.
Sure you can modify them to run as well as some others but they still aren't much more refined than Red Green's toilet carb.
Lots of better ones out there, I guess they just aren't as pretty.

Love Red Green's crapper carb! And the shaker hood with accelerator pump . . . what a hoot!

Also fixed my fuel sender this evening too. The holes in the mounting plate inside the tank were drilled a little off -- causing the sender to bind. I reamed out the holes a little & reinstalled & the lever isn't binding any more. Ok, I started on this late & it's 11pm so I didn't test it but can't imagine it won't work right now given it's moving freely - so I'm assuming it's fixed.

It's British. It's mended. It's never "fixed".

true, there's not much British left on my car... There's a reason my tags read 'MG MUTT'.