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rockfla

rockfla

Well-known member
Took my 39 Mercury out for a good long test drive this morning.....just a little back story, my Dad took it to a show about 10 miles from here awhile back, drove the 10+ miles to the show fine, on the return trip home a few hours later, died about 3 mile from the house. Pulled it home, pushed it into my shop. The next day it started and ran great. SO I figured the condenser was about 3 years old and of "unknown" origins SO I ordered a new condenser and installed that. It has a Skip coil, new condenser, Charlie NY Carb & fuel pump, NOW on my test drive today, got about 8+ miles into the drive and at about 40mph started bucking, back off the accelerator just a bit and it ran fine. 4 or so miles further started bucking again, slow down or pull over, it runs fine. SO, I tried limping it home and got to a small hill and it would not pull a small hill. I pulled it home, unhooked the tow strap, It started right up and I pulled it into my shop, runs and idles just fine. I am going to pull my generator and send it to Steve and have him check and redo it IF it needs and am also gonna pull my distributor and check the points and timing on my Sun 504. ANY other areas of concern that I need to look at and check that you can suggest??

SORRY DIDN'T SEE MY TITLE MIS-TYPED SPEELING.
 
I have a 38 pickup that sat for years and then we got it running again. It would start and run fine for about half a mile, then die and not start. You could wait half a day, go back and start it and drive it back home. Junk from the fuel tank was clogging the line, etc. then draining back and allowing it to start and run for a short period again. Simple solution, I went 2 miles to the neighbor's junk pile and got another tank from a 40 sedan. Those days are gone.
 
Woodburnranch

Funny you relate that story, that "particular" story is WHY I was doing the long test drive, AS I suspected the same issue causing a fuel delivery issue with it just quiting on my Dad and his return trip. ANOTHER addition to my back story, about a year ago I ran out of gas, I had installed a in-line aftermarket fuel filter in the rubber supply line from the fire wall to the fuel pump when I got my carb and fuel pump done by CharlieNY the firs time. When I ran out of fuel, My inline filter was full of trash from the fuel tank. I pulled my pump and sent it back to CharlieNY and sure enough my pump had a good amount of trash in it too!!! I am wondering IF I should go ahead and pull my carburetor and send it back to Charlie and have him clean and check it for me as well??? As I didn't do that the second time around?? I "don't" think the clogged fuel issue caused my "bucking" issue as every single time I would push the clutch in and let it just Idle OR I would pull off the road and stop and let it run/idle, it never quit running NOR it never didn't rev up settling there OR never quit running at idle sitting on the side of the road for a minute or two!!!!! SO it was always getting fuel?? BUT I also have not eliminated the tank trash issue completely either!!!!
 
If the battery is still charged enough to crank the engine the generator is probably not involved with the problem.
Have you tried taking the gas cap off? the tank might not have a vent.
Get one of those spark testers with adjustable gap and compare the spark when it is running good to when it runs bad.
Have you checked the filter screen in the fuel pump—- are there signs of debris in the tank showing up in the filter?
 
I had a similar problem with my old '36 3 window when I first got it. It would go about 20 miles and start having problems like you are mentioning. I found that keeping it full of gas mostly eliminated the problem, so I kept topping it up every couple of days. It kept me going until I was able to get around and fix it properly.

Keep it full and see if that helps; it could be diagnostic.

Haven't they fixed the problem that keeps you from editing the thread title? What's it been? A couple of years?
 
Like woodburnranch described, I would investigate the fuel system. If possible, when it dies immediately check a plug wire to see if you have spark. If no spark, put another (I always have a spare) Haney coil on and see if the problem goes away. I would also try to jump around the resistor, they can have a broken wire that when it heats up cuts the power to the coil, cools off and it makes connections again. Along with the spare coil I have a jumper wire that I can "hotwire" my 40s directly from the battery if need be.
Good luck, let us know what you find that cures this annoying problem.
 
GUYS
The problem NOW of it "bucking" it has NEVER quit running.....ALSO its hard to check my generator when the issue is when the car is "Driving" down the road, not while sitting still.....and started at around 40mph....initially I could slow down to 35 and it ran fine!!! After about 4 or 5 miles at 35 THEN it started bucking then. It NEVER once EVER quit running!!! I could pull over and it would idle "perfectly", I could raise the hood and grab the accelerator rod and rev the motor standing out side and it would rev up just fine!!! I got back in and tried to limp it back home and it wouldn't pull a small hill in the road, it just bucked and sputtered, as soon as I pulled back off the road and came to a stop, it sat there and Idled fine, never quit running!!!!! Once again, I pulled it back home about 4 miles, unhooked the tow rope, cranked right up and I drove it into my shop. I JUST went out and cranked it up, cranked fine and sat there and Idled and tried to get a voltage reading off the generator, I had my Dad grab the accelerator rod and rev the motor while I checked the generator out put and it did ALL of this with NO issue!!!! Battery is nice and strong and spun the car perfectly, the ammeter showed charging at last start
 
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I too tend to believe this is a fuel delivery issue. I had a '40 that would do exactly the same thing. Turned out a small piece of tank coating would get sucked to the pickup tube and cause the flow to be cut off. Let the car sit a bit and apparently, that small piece would float away.
Repeat.
 
Kube said:
I too tend to believe this is a fuel delivery issue. I had a '40 that would do exactly the same thing. Turned out a small piece of tank coating would get sucked to the pickup tube and cause the flow to be cut off. Let the car sit a bit and apparently, that small piece would float away.
Repeat.
Click to expand...
Mike

How did you find that out??? Did you pull your line and blow it out to find that?? I think based on your "story" I'll try blowing some air back through the fuel line at the firewall to the tank, then drain the tank and see what I can do about cleaning the tank out. CURRENTLY, the aftermarket fuel filter I have in line now is PERFECTLY clear Mean while I will send my generator off to Steve Blanchard and totally illuminate that from the possiblity of issues and also have the peace of mind on that!!!!
 
rockfla said:
Mike

How did you find that out??? Did you pull your line and blow it out to find that?? I think based on your "story" I'll try blowing some air back through the fuel line at the firewall to the tank, then drain the tank and see what I can do about cleaning the tank out. CURRENTLY, the aftermarket fuel filter I have in line now is PERFECTLY clear Mean while I will send my generator off to Steve Blanchard and totally illuminate that from the possiblity of issues and also have the peace of mind on that!!!!
Click to expand...

Ultimately, that's how I figured out. I'd also eliminated ignition issues for certain.
And yes, I pulled some hair out on that one. Very frustrating.
The piece that was floating in the tank was perhaps only 1" square, akin to a piece of saran wrap.
I'm getting bad memories....
 
I'm in the fuel delivery camp as well. What ever it is, settles down over night causing the issue to "go away" the next day only to return. It seems like it's in the tank and is caused by sloshing around
 
When the motor is under power, the fuel pump is sucking harder, causing the obstruction to seal off the tank outlet. When you let off or idle the pump doesn’t pull so hard and the obstruction falls away and lets fuel flow. Try running a remote gas can and by-pass the fuel tank………Mark
 
If you never pulled your fuel tank after it filled your filter and carb , Do it now . It will not clean itself . It can hold alot of trash . I had a similar situation, make that almost exact . I wasn’t getting enough fuel volume to run above 15 mph , could idle all day but under load , no go . It drove me nuts . After 2 clogged fuel filters , I did a fuel pump volume test , bingo . New fuel line and a cleaned tank . On theroad again .
 
Rocfla - had the same problem with my 49 when I first acquired it. Thought it was electrical, not thinking it was a fuel problem. Finally, cleaned tank, coated it with
POR 15 tank sealer and that was 24 years ago. No fuel system issues since.
 
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