Well, the floats weren't stuck...

[goloch]

After dismantling the carbs this afternoon, it seems the issues I was having with the HIF4s was a result of a leaky float in the front carb. That's easy enough to fix. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Silly question though: is the $130 rebuild kit from Moss the same as the $30x2 rebuild kit from the B-Hive?

 

[kennypinkerton]

Looks like there might be a little nasty crud in there too.

 

[goloch]

That float came out of the front carb. The back wasn't nearly as gross.

 

[tony barnhill]

You feed from the tank to the front carb & then the rear?

If so, clean your tank also.

 

[Banjo]

it looks like a gnarly fortune cookie..... don't taste it.
If you crack it open it will say "you will smell like gas for several hours"
I agree with Tony, a good tank cleaning is in order.
Best of luck Guv'na

 

[goloch]

Ugh, I was afraid of that. Looks like that's my next project to research.

 

[tony barnhill]

Dropping a gas tank is the easiest job on a B....just put a floor jack up under the center of it before you remove the last nut holding it in place - oh, & make sure its empty before removing.

 

[goloch]

Yeah, I'd heard that from the guy I bought the car from. It's the actual cleaning that I'm going to have figure out. Plus it'd be foolish to not clean the fuel lines while I was there.

 

[tony barnhill]

Radiator shop will just boil it overnight...if it doesn't have internal baffles, they can also line it....but, they'll need the sending unit & its attaching pieces so they can get everything sealed up real good for when they pressurize it to check for leaks.

 

[jlaird]

I was told take it to the radiator shop and they will boil it? Sounds good to me, going to check tomorrow.

 

[dklawson]

If I may suggest....

I start a gas tank cleaning by purchasing a gallon of runny paint stripper (not gel) and sloshing that around in the tank for a while. After rinsing the tank out and blowing through the pickup and vent lines you can inspect the insides and wash it with a strong caustic cleaner. Simple Green is an option (though weak) as are the "purple" cleaners. I've been VERY impressed by POR-15's 'Marine Clean' degreaser. It certainly will be useful at removing any varnish or gum in the tank. Incidentally, of the gas tank coating/lining kits I've tried I greatly prefer the POR kit to the 'white' products like Kreem.

 

[jlaird]

Not a bad idea at all, didn't think of that. Will try after I talk to the radiator shop, maybe they got some real bad caustic stuff.

 

[tony barnhill]

$40 & I get back a cleaned, pressurized/repaired (if necessary), painted tank!
$80 & its got a new liner inside

not worth me hasseling with it & the chemicals.

 

[Dave Russell]

[ QUOTE ]

Silly question though: is the $130 rebuild kit from Moss the same as the $30x2 rebuild kit from the B-Hive?

[/ QUOTE ]
Hi Gabe,
Not a silly question at all. After comparing the two kits, I can see very little added value for the $130 Moss standard rebuild kit over the two $30 B-Hive kits. They both contain about the same parts. The Moss kit just costs twice as much. The quality of the two kits I don't know, but I suspect it is about the same. The $140 Moss kit contains throttle shafts, bushings, etc. which are not in their $130 kit, but I doubt if you need these parts anyway. Maybe someone who is familiar with B-Hive can advise you better.

If your HIF's have the spring loaded poppet valves on the butterflys, a lot of folks remove them & solder the hole shut. It seems to make tuning easier, & they run better.
D

 

[jlaird]

My god Tony, if these folks can't do that here, I am bringing my tank with me.

 

[dklawson]

$40 to $80 does sound like an excellent price for tank cleaning, painting, and coating! A Lining kit will cost you around $30 and then you've got all that work to do. It will be hard to beat the prices Tony posted.

 

[ROADSTR6]

Goloch,

As I'm sure you've surmised by now, the info. I gave you on removing the floats was for HS4's, not HIF's. I see that you figured it out anyway. Same basic principle. I hope that having done this work, you are a little less intimidated by the SU's now. Leaky floats don't float too well, do they?! I'm curious to know what your fuel filter looks like. Is it very dirty? Your carbs looked a tad gunked up, but not terribly so. A good tank cleaning can't be a bad thing to do anyway. Good luck getting it back on the road!

Dave

 

[goloch]

Yes Dave, I saw that pretty readily. Getting the carbs off the car wasn't that bad; besides, I can now clean the outsides thoroughly. I'm absolutely less intimidated by them. Whoever said it was a toilet tank was right! The carbs do still have the poppet valve mostly because I hadn't had the car apart to do anything on it in a while.

I think I'm going to go ahead and give the B-Hive rebuild kit a shot. They seem to have a pretty good reputation and the price is right. Worst case scenario is that I'm out $60.

As for the fuel tank and filter, I replaced the filter when I replaced all the flexible lines last year. I didn't drain and clean the tank at that time because I just got the car and was antsy to drive it. Since it's off the road anyway, I'm going to go ahead and do that now. However, I'm not lucky enough to have a shop that'll do the tank as inexpensively as Tony's. The lowest *starting* price I was quoted was $125 without even taking a liner into consideration. I'll probably either do it myself or look into a used/rebuilt tank.

Without a compressor, any ideas on how to get enough air through to thoroughly clean the fuel lines? Replacing them looks like such a pain...

 

[tony barnhill]

$125? A new tank's not much more than that....

...however, north Alabama - specifically Madison County - IS the best kept secret in the country:

....great weather

...more citizens have library cards than anywhere else in country

..more PhD's per capita than even Silicone Valley

...highest mean income in Alabama; lowest taxes

...close to mountains, coast, international airport

...concerts, touring stage productions, professional baseball, hockey, arena football teams

...4 quality universities in area

...military base

...aerospace industry

...low cost of living

I forget how good we have it here...but everytime one of you guys tell me how much you have to pay for services, I remember real quick!

Same thing happened with Jack Laird over on the Spridget board...when he compared cost of sandblasting his Bugeye, he found he could buy a trailer & bring his up here for sandblasting & still save money over the cost in Florida!

 

[jlaird]

And sell the trailer when I am finished for what I have in it even.