Well, all the prepwork and inspection seems to have paid off. I had a visit from my brother and we started the PW. It came to life without any trouble, and ran (in my opinion) quite proudly! It had been sitting in the Barstow, Calif. area for many years, and perhaps the dry desert air was helpful in keeping rust at bay, and unlike my 1941-2 PW that suffered California redwood forest moisture for the last 30+ years (nice electrical connections and door rot, 'bro!).
One of the tasks during pre-start preparation was to rebuild the carburetor (only the second time I've ever done that. The first was for a 1972 Ford F350, but that problem was actually solder beads from the fuel tank fabrication process gravitating towards the suction tube, indicating fuel starvation- but only at high RPM/load.) I'm glad I took the time to fully disassemble and get all the varnish and scale out of this carb, it wasn't too bad, but it was a great learning process.
Anyway, it seems like there may be an issue with the idle circuit. I can start and run the engine just fine with first attempt, but the choke must be carefully manipulated, even after the engine warms up enough for the radiator to start spitting at me through its leaks. The accelerator linkage works great, and seems properly adjusted. Once I get the engine to idle by itself with a piece of baling wire standing in for the choke cable, I manipulate the accelerator and I can easily change the RPM. Then, after I re-take manual control of the choke and manipulate it slightly, the engine dies. It also dies without acute control of the choke cam.
During our initial run up, there was a lot of smoke from the exhasut, but today when I played with it, there was very little visible smoke is present, and it smells more like a rich mixture than oil (good news, in my humble opinion).
My brother feels this is probably due to a failure in the idle circuit, with one of the ports most likely fouled. It's possible I missed that clean-out operation during the rebuild. I don't really know much about carburetors, and the way he explained it made good sense to me once I thought about vacuum changes and fuel flow during both acceleration and idle. They are seprate operations in my understanding, which seems to explain why it will work just fine during acceleration, then not at idle without assistance.
Vacuum leaks have been checked and eliminated.
This truck is a 1952 B3PW and the carburetor is a Carter E7S1, ungoverned and on a stock 6 cyl engine. I hope this link helps for a stock picture (not mine):
http://t137.com/ClintDixon/Images/E7S1.jpg
QUESTION/COMMENTS: I need input on my problem from those ahead of me on this path. What can I do to correct the idle problem?
Thanks!
Steven Johnson
One of the tasks during pre-start preparation was to rebuild the carburetor (only the second time I've ever done that. The first was for a 1972 Ford F350, but that problem was actually solder beads from the fuel tank fabrication process gravitating towards the suction tube, indicating fuel starvation- but only at high RPM/load.) I'm glad I took the time to fully disassemble and get all the varnish and scale out of this carb, it wasn't too bad, but it was a great learning process.
Anyway, it seems like there may be an issue with the idle circuit. I can start and run the engine just fine with first attempt, but the choke must be carefully manipulated, even after the engine warms up enough for the radiator to start spitting at me through its leaks. The accelerator linkage works great, and seems properly adjusted. Once I get the engine to idle by itself with a piece of baling wire standing in for the choke cable, I manipulate the accelerator and I can easily change the RPM. Then, after I re-take manual control of the choke and manipulate it slightly, the engine dies. It also dies without acute control of the choke cam.
During our initial run up, there was a lot of smoke from the exhasut, but today when I played with it, there was very little visible smoke is present, and it smells more like a rich mixture than oil (good news, in my humble opinion).
My brother feels this is probably due to a failure in the idle circuit, with one of the ports most likely fouled. It's possible I missed that clean-out operation during the rebuild. I don't really know much about carburetors, and the way he explained it made good sense to me once I thought about vacuum changes and fuel flow during both acceleration and idle. They are seprate operations in my understanding, which seems to explain why it will work just fine during acceleration, then not at idle without assistance.
Vacuum leaks have been checked and eliminated.
This truck is a 1952 B3PW and the carburetor is a Carter E7S1, ungoverned and on a stock 6 cyl engine. I hope this link helps for a stock picture (not mine):
http://t137.com/ClintDixon/Images/E7S1.jpg
QUESTION/COMMENTS: I need input on my problem from those ahead of me on this path. What can I do to correct the idle problem?
Thanks!
Steven Johnson
Comment