Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Readying for the Road
August 8, 2006
While sampling the free continental breakfast this morning we visited with several bikers. This is Sturgis week and bikers are everywhere. Bikers on tour are much like Model A'ers on tour. Same great people, just a different hobby.
We picked up a battery, oil and a few supplies on the way to the sellers shop. You will recall that we brought spare parts, tools and 2 new tires and tubes. So far the plan was working better than expected but that was about to change!
This was to be one of those days when simple jobs were not simple and tough jobs were near impossible!
Install the new battery, that should be fairly routine. It seems the car had been put away with the old battery left in place. Corrosion had taken its toll and the end of the ground strap was all but gone.
New cables were not on our spares list. The starter cable was salvaged but it put up a fight. Howard covered our end of town in the loaner car looking for a short ground strap but came up empty handed.
The seller stopped by and told us to salvage one from one of the rough Model A's in the warehouse. In fact, he told us to take whatever we needed from one of the cars being restored! There was no way I could bring myself to undo a restoration in progress. So far so good, new battery installed and only 2 hours gone.
I knew ahead of time that the tires on the car were 40 years old and the spares were junk. I decided to chance the old tires and bring 2 new ones for the spares.
I brought 2 new Firestones for the spares and learned first hand that Firestones will not fit in the side mounts while inflated. Bummer! What good are flat tires for spares? We swapped the old front tires to the side mounts and ran the new Firestones.
While Howard played with the tires I tackled the engine, starting with an oil change. I first drained the old oil without running the engine. That batch came out like tar! When I tried to empty the drain pan into a container the seller uses to collect old oil, I made a big mess! Luckily I anticipated a minor spill and had placed a towel on the floor first.
I managed to get things cleaned up with out staining the nice concrete floor but that fiasco chewed up valuable time. Anyway, the engine was refilled with cheap oil and when I finally got it running we drained again and filled with synthetic 15/50 multi-grade oil.
The gas tank was missing the filler screen and by looking in with a flashlight we could see it had very little gas in it and looked pretty clean.
I disconnected the line at the carburetor and slipped a hose over the end so we could drain the old gas into a container. Would you believe only about a cup full ran out! I was all rigged up for a gallon and I could have soaked up what came out in a hankie!
We then added a couple gallons we had bought on our way to the shop this morning to flush the lines. Turned the valve on and nothing! Howard gave the hose a couple of good puffs and the line cleared. We had good flow now so what should we do... will the gas continue to flow or stop up on the road?
The clock is whizzing along and we have lots to do yet. We decided to go with out digging deeper. I had come prepared to do battle with a dirty fuel system. This is a flat firewall car and I brought a stand-up screen, new lines and sediment bowl parts. I also had rigged a way to siphon from the top of the tank. My last resort plan was to buy a boat tank and put it in the back seat.
Now that we had gas to the carburetor it was a matter of getting it into the carburetor. I dropped the bottom off the Zenith, dumped out some junk, and checked the float. Howard rapped on the carburetor while I turned on the gas and the stuck float valve popped open. Full flow, good to go!
As a side note, the fuel system never caused one cough until I was pulling away from Howard's house at the end of the trip. It fell on its face for a few car lengths and has not coughed since.
August 8, 2006
