You are lucky if gas lasts a month, maybe two, and even that is stretching it. A year and a halfou: I hope it didn't gum up your carburetor.
Bad gas turns gum and varnish. That can do wonderful things to idle circuits and other small passages in the carb. That gas is bad, make no mistake about it:laugh: A year and a half:eek2:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2668/why-does-gasoline-go-stale-so-quickl http://www.fuel-testers.com/expiration_of_ethanol_gas.html http://www.fuel-testers.com/ethanol_engine_precautions.html See #9
You could also siphon the fuel out of the tank with a hose.... I had a mouthfull of fuel doing this once so now I get a neighbor kid to do it for me LOL! I was burping up fuel for days LOL.. You can also use an electric fuel pump to pump your tank empty. Anyways, once the fuel is all gone, add new fuel and some carb cleaner in the tank. The carb cleaner will disolve any varnish inside the carb. I also use fuel stabilizer called Stabil in the fuel tanks of all my cars that I do not drive daily. I even add it my wifes SUV because a tank of fuel lasts her about a month and half.
That wasn't simple enough for me :bla: I didn't make the leap to bad fuel. I just figured the carb was ok because I was running it on the Electra back in January trying to diagnose a lean misfire on that. (turned out to be the teeth on my pickup coil smashed the ones on the distributor shaft, pulled my hair out on that one)
It is not a bad job to drop the tank. It takes me about 3 beers to get the tank out... I measure jobs by the amount of beers I drink during the job LOL... You just need to un-bolt straps that hold it up, the wires to the fuel sender, ground wire and the rubber hoses. It is a good idea to drop the tank and clean it anyway, as well as add new fuel grade hoses and cleaning the ground connection with sand paper. I use BBs, carb cleaner, and trans fluid to disolve all the varnish in the tank. I do this on all my old cars, it is the only way to make sure you have a clean fuel supply. Make sure you get all the BBs out if you do this BTW.... Please excuse me I need to go back and work on my truck... Burp.....
3 beers sounds like it would take me less than 30 minutes :Brow: Doesn't sound so bad, if it should be done then I may as well do it. I'll get started after work tomorrow.
I use some rope to hang the tank from the rafters in the garage then I swish it all around for a bit to loosen up the crud.
Problem is, the beers can reflect both stress/difficulty, and time it takes. There is also a point where the beer count tells you more about the quality of work than anything else!
I personally would hold off on dropping the tank and get it running with a remote tank. I'd get a hose long enough for the fuel pump to suck it out of a small plastic gas can with fresh fuel. -nate
This is just a beer sipping count, if I get frustrated I walk away from the car and slam a few beers LOL... Then come back the next day with a fresh mind set. How many times have you been SOOOOO pissed off trying to do something and then the next morning it just fell into place?
ARGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!! Ok, so I decided to just stick some fuel lines into a gas can and see if it runs any better. It doesn't. It isn't really a vacuum leak now that I've really dug into it though. The car dies when I put my hands over the carb, but it revvs up first. It sorta stumbles like a missfire. When I hold the rpm around 1300 it runs real smooth except every once in a while its' like it misses a single cylinder and it's rather random. Any ideas now? I'm convinced the fuel must be still good in the tank at this point.
Once an idle circuit is clogged, it won't run right regardless of what gas you put through it. Pull the carb apart and clean it.
Use a timing light to make sure all of your plug wires are getting power. Have you inspected the distributer cap, rotor and wires? I always replace all these items when i get an old car.. I also have the carb rebuilt, clean the tank and lines, new fuel filter, then set the timing, idle speed and idle mixture screws. Start with all that and then you can move forward.
I'm sure it's all good except maybe the timing. And how exactly do you mean check each wire withthr timing light? Just clamp the pickup on each wire and see if it keeps flashing?
