Car Broke Down First Drive

[jopizz]

It appears to be the original style cap. I don't like the black tar around the straps at the front of the tank. Usually that's the sign of leaking gas causing the undercoating to melt.

John

[Sherman]

Is the fuel line from the gas tank copper or is that surface rust?

[ssj335]

Btw, I don't think I ran out of gas like mechanic said. I know I didn't. To fill it only took 11 gallons, but the tank has 20 gallon capacity, right?

[YellowRose]

Car Broke Down First Drive

Yes, that is right, it is a 20 gallon tank..... Did you get the car home safely? You have not said yet.... I hope so...

[jopizz]

Like most of the things your mechanic has said I didn't believe it either. Looks like you had 9 gallons in the tank.

John

[ssj335]

Car made it home. But it was on verge of dying when I got there. The problem is still present and it wasn't a running out of gas thing.

Since there is no rust or sediment in the fuel filter (the one located in the engine bay) what do you think the cause could be? Fuel pump not working? Could rust in the gas tank still be the cause or would that show up on the engine bays filter? Mechanic thought fuel lines looked newer but he said that about the starter solenoid too.

[jopizz]

A bad fuel pump would normally show up right away, not after a few miles. If it is indeed a fuel starvation issue I still suspect the gas tank. The screen in the tank may be partially clogged. By your pictures the tank looks like the original. If it is it's well past it's useful life.

John

[YellowRose]

Car Broke Down First Drive

While the car was up on the lift at Bob's, Kirsten took a bunch of pix of the underside of the car. Here is what she is seeing. She would like your comments regarding the rust issue. To much to repair? Not to bad? To expensive to replace panels? etc..

[jopizz]

It's not so much what you can see but what you can't see. At minimum it's going to need outer rockers and rear quarter repair. Since the car has been repainted it's impossible to tell what's really underneath without going around it with a magnet. Even if what's visible is all the rust there is you're talking about a few thousand in repairs by the time you factor in parts, cutting out the rust, welding in new panels and paint. As she has found out paying someone to do repairs is very expensive.

John

[Deanj]

Anybody notice the drain plug on the passenger's side? My 1960 is on the driver's side, but I have an oversized plug meaning either a new pan or plug.

Dean

[ssj335]

A few thousand dollars to fix the rust would be an investment I'm willing to make $2500-$3500), but if it were a bigger job (say $4000-7500 or more) I would hesitate. I'm glad that the rust doesn't seem REALLY BAD from first look.

Just to go back to what happened with the car dying again, I drive for more than a few miles, it was more like 45 minutes of mainly back road driving until the car was about to die.

After twenty minutes the GEN light came on at a very low brightness you could barely notice it was on. Even as I was driving it was often on low brightness. Sometimes it disappeared altogether for a couple minutes. As I was at my driveway I slowed down and both the OIL and GEN lights came on full brightness which usually meant the car was seconds away from death. So I drove past the driveway and went around the block while I called the mechanic. No answer and I didn't think I'd make it back there so I went back to the driveway. Pulled in and both lights came on again. I was able to get where I needed to be.

So I am not sure what the issue could be. As mentioned I think the fuel tank is suspect. But open to other theories. Thanks for all the help I know this has been a long post and a very long thread.

[jopizz]

The only thing we really know for sure is that when the car broke down there was no fuel getting to the carburetor. When gas was poured in it started right up but died indicating that fuel was not getting pumped from the tank even though we now know it had plenty of gas. There are only three possibilities: fuel is not getting out of the tank either because it's clogged or the venting is not working and it's causing a vacuum blocking the flow. The fuel pump is weak and not pumping fuel when it gets hot. I've seen this with electric pumps but not mechanical pumps. Usually they work or they don't. You have a blocked fuel filter. Since your filter is easy to see I suspect this isn't the problem. When replacing parts I always start with the cheapest. I recommend going to your local auto store and getting a new vented gas cap. It's only a couple of dollars. With your old cap being painted over who knows if it's venting correctly. If that doesn't do anything then a new tank is probably the next step.

John

[ssj335]

Thanks John. I'll try the vented cap that would be great if it solved the issue. Can you imagine if that was the only thing that needed to happen from the beginning?

Now I checked my oil level as per Ray's suggestion. The oil level is past full. So it could've been overfilled. The oil line ends just past the word FULL. So it's beyond the full line, plus goes further to cover the word FULL is that much too much? Do I need to drain this? Could that have caused any issues?

[jopizz]

Did you wipe off the dipstick, then reinsert it and check it. Slightly over the full mark is not a big problem. Is you car on level ground. I would continue to check it after driving it. If the level goes past where it was the last time you checked it then you have a problem. If you check the oil and it looks like a chocolate milkshake do not drive the car any longer. You have water in the oil.

John

[ssj335]

I did wipe off and re dip. And that was the level so that seems ok. I'll redo at a later time and try to photograph to make sure it looks not like a milkshake.

Couldn't get the vented cap today but plan to do so asap.