Cliff, Am I following you correctly that the empty float bowl/ hard starting is as simple as the accelerator pump seal is leaking or faulty? I have had this problem for years, and I rebuilt this carb maybe 8 years ago with your kit, was the seal from back then inferior and I should replace it? I do see residual fuel stains on the top of it. Other than that the carb has been flawless.
One of three things, fuel delivery (not returning to the bowl), accl pump seal defective, or problems with the choke/choke adjustment(s). If the carb is simply empty the engine should roar to life as soon as fuel returns to the bowl. This should only take at most 2-3 short cycles of cranking and pushing the accl a few times with each cycle to put some fuel into the intake. I guess if you really want to look even further it could be an ignition issue, weak spark, defective coil, ignition resistor bypass wire broken or not being used with points distributors, etc......
No, it’s just empty of fuel after about 3 days, once fuel pump gets it to the carb it fires immediately.
Fuel engineered for fuel injection evaporates entirely too fast from open (carbureted) systems. This has much if not everything to do with our issue (closed systems [fuel injection] can support a much higher fuel volatility expressed as Reid Vapor Pressure). It would be interesting to see what the TVP and RVP was 50 years ago, or even 30 years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reid_vapor_pressure
"No, it’s just empty of fuel after about 3 days, once fuel pump gets it to the carb it fires immediately." That is pretty normal with this new fuel. Typically not much of a problem provided fuel returns to the bowl quickly. The biggest problem I see here is not an empty fuel bowl but the accl pump cups failing. This can be very difficult to diagnose as they may look fine when you remove the pump for inspection and move up and down in the bore OK. What is happening with these current production "blue" seals is that they swell up and get too tight in the bore. After sitting a few days they don't allow fuel past when it returns to the bowl so very little if any is getting put into the intake during the cold starting routine. Many end up following very poor advice on the Forums and removing the carb to make bottom plug repairs. Once again ALWAYS leak test your casting before making any repair at all and NEVER smear a bunch of epoxy over leaking rear plugs as that is completely useless and if you build up very much the gasket may not seal or shaft(s) may bind up when the carb is placed back in service. As with most things a little common sense applies here. First the rear plugs are in a "void" and even if they are leaking the fuel is trapped and doesn't end up in the intake. Leaking front plugs have a DIRECT path into the intake. The symptoms when they leak can be running rich as it's sucking fuel right out of the float bowl when engine vacuum is high, and difficult hot re-starts after a hot shut-down. This can take as little as 5 to 10 minutes with a big leak, or may take half hour or longer with a slow leak. In either case the engine acts FLOODED and you have to hold the accl down or even to the floor to get it to start. This pretty much covers the "empty float bowl" scenario, hope the info helps some.....
Guys just put a once of gas in a small jar ( baby food ). punch a 3/8 hole in the lid... You can see just how fast it evaporates....
...and ethanol gas evaporates quicker. Money in the bank for oil companies. Evaporates quicker and you get worse mpg....win/win for them.
Oh wow what a response.... I bought the rebuild kit from Cliff. Still waiting for the taxes here in the Netherlands. But... Toppic starter has another question. I see the lastdigit of my Qjet is one. That means it's a manual transmission, I believe, but I have an automatic. The rest of the numbers are correct. Buick, 1977, emissions. Is that a problem? Or do I have to adjust, close, open or pierce something.
