April 7th

Well, today was fun. I started by removing some non-critical (and by that, I mean not used, or ruined) wiring from the truck. After I got bored with that, I took the right rear tire off, because it only holds air for a day and a half or so. I managed to twist off one of the studs in the process. Once the tire was off, I removed the brake drum to check it out inside. It was surprisingly intact. Even more surprising was its striking similarity to the drum brake found on the rear of a 1991 Camaro. In 25 years, I would have thought the technology would have changed a little. Next, I took the spare tire to a neighbor's house to fill it up to see if it holds air any better. It certainly does not. So I filled up the original tire and put it back on, so I could move the truck.


To move the truck meant putting the fuel tank back in (which I wasn't ready to do yet) or put the bypass back in so I could run off the gas can again. Once the bypass was in, I fired it up. It ran fine for a second, then revved way up, so I shut it back down. I tried starting again, a few more times, and it was just running way too fast. I guess something might have happened to the carburetor when I had it off yesterday. It might have gotten something shaken loose or stuck inside somehow. Maybe because I dropped it. A couple of times. Stupid gravity.

Took the carb back off and decided to take it apart. Most people that know about cars know that this was against my better judgment. Most (if not all) carburetors have little rods and mechanisms and springs that like to jump out and vanish, and my Rochester Monojet is no exception. Fortunately, some time ago Jen gave me an old textbook she found called "Auto Engines and Electrical Systems," which has given me relatively advanced knowledge about carburetors, in that I knew what each of the little pieces are for and what they're supposed to do. That didn't help me much when I thought I had it almost back together and then dumped some parts in the grass. That's where the metal detector proved more useful than the book. Dark colored springs disappear really fast in grass. Anyway, I think the problem was in the mechanism that allows more fuel into the carb throat when one steps on the gas. (It contained a dark colored spring.) There's a little rod that operates a valve that opens to allow more fuel, and it looked like it had come loose from where it was supposed to be. So I put everything back together, after cleaning it really well, and bolted it back to the truck. Somehow it works fine now, so I guess I must have fixed it, and I managed not to lose any parts. I didn't intend on rebuilding the carb today, but I was, after all, curious as to what it looked like inside.