Derailed

Well when you set off driving long distances in a 53 year old vehicle you intuitively know that things can go wrong. Today they went wrong. That float valve issue of yesterday came back today. Only today I couldn't even get the truck to do 30 without the power cutting out. Thankfully I was in a town called Rifle, Colorado at the time. Couldn't get onto the interstate so I thought I'd pull into the local parts store and do my best to eliminate possible causes.

First I thought maybe it was a bad case of vapour lock. So I bought some muffler wrap and some insulative tape. I wrapped the muffler and taped the fuel lines and had no better luck.

So then I thought maybe the fuel pump had died, this would also lead to fuel starvation issues. So I purchased an electric fuel pump and plumbed it in. Everything seemed better so off I went to Glenwood Springs a bit happier but still wary. The truck was still running hot on the interstate and then while driving around in town I managed to run into fuel starvation issues again.

I noticed in town while musing over an open engine bay a bit of fuel leaking from the accelerator linkage on the carb. Perhaps the cause of my troubles? Perhaps not, but certainly not a good thing and maybe indicative of bigger issues with the carb. The good thing is I've eliminated the fuel pump as the issue so hopefully the issue is in the carburetor.

Unfortunately, while Weber 34 ICH carbs are still made and quite common, they are not common enough to be an off the shelf part in Glenwood Springs. Therefore I'm going to have to order one from back East, which given it's Thursday evening, won't arrive until Monday. So I'm stuck here until then.

The really unfortunate thing is I felt I was beginning to develop some momentum. The last few stops had gone well and I was getting ahead of schedule. Now I feel deflated and have sunk into a real low. Grump with Grover. Grumpy with my decision to try to do the field work this way. Grumpy to be away from my family for longer than necessary.