My eBay purchased 74

[wally426ci]

Edelbrocks will do something similar if the primary jet is too lean.....

[NCtrueconservative]

Edelbrocks will do something similar if the primary jet is too lean.....

Wally my Eddy does the hesitation as well. How would one fix the primary jet being lean? Air/fuel screw?

[wally426ci]

I haven't watched the video to confirm if its exactly the same, but I had a jet/needle kit which you can get from Summit i believe. I went with larger primaries and the problem went away.

Its been a while, and I can't remember which jets I have in it currently.

[Chryco Psycho]

Almost every eddy carb stumbles as the throttle is opened . I keep saying it but they are not good carbs . Anyway try raising the float level , 7/16 seems to be too low . Next the squirter , they have a kit with 3 squirters , one is smaller than what you have , one is the same as what you have already , toss these two  & the third is larger , this is the one to install , this should take care of the problem but not always .  Increasing the jetting can help if the carb is running lean but jetting is not used at idle so it only comes into play once the throttle is open & there is no reason to increase the jetting if the engine is not running lean to cover a different problem .

[Jamiez]

This week my new spark plugs showed up so I gapped them and swapped them. It wasn't too difficult but the headers make the driver's side plugs closest to the firewall a challenge to get at:

And here they all are removed:
Passenger side

Driver's side:


And in other news on Friday, I got a message on Facebook from my challenger's original owner!  I sent him a message asking if he was the owner months ago and he never responded, but yesterday I got a message out of the blue.  When he owned the car it was still wearing the original FE5 red.  He seemed to really enjoy the car and he said he'd look to see if he had any old photos of the car or documentation.

[Jamiez]

Week 55:
The car starts rough even after I changed the plugs so I started looking at the carb.  I preemptively purchased a rebuild kit and that was probably a very good idea.  I ran it for a while yesterday with the air cleaner off and discovered it leaks fuel from all over the place.  This is what the intake looks like, I'm guessing some of that has been sitting there since I got it back on the road.  There's some staining as well which leads me to believe this isn't the first time it leaked.



The driver's side looks pretty much the same.  I spent the afternoon cleaning it all off.  I'll give it a run over the next few days and see if I can't pin point the exact leak(s).

[Jamiez]

So I finally had some time to get the carb running with my dad over to observe what/where the leaks were.  Turns out the answer is..everywhere.  After a short run during which the car idled rough and was a real pain to start, we cleaned everything up and pulled the carb off. Both bowls were removed, and all the gaskets changed...boy did they need them.  Oh and the secondaries?  Yeah the rod from the vacuum to the linkage (probably not the right terms) was missing a retaining ring so it was just flapping around and not opening the secondaries.


Here are some of the pieces that were replaced:


It took a few hours of disassembling, cleaning and reassembling, but the carb is now back on the car.  It sounds a lot better now although it could probably use a little fine tuning.  Even better it's not spilling fuel all over the intake.

[joelson6]

nice pics 

that's the tell tail signs of crummy pump gas. are you running just regular pump gas? and what octane are you putting in it? 87, 89, 91, 93, 94?
the higher the octane the better. for what it is, it's still cleaner.


it all started to me when "they" started adding ethanol to the gas. my wife has a '70 Z28 with a Holley 750. all of a sudden the car would
start running horribly. so I took the carb apart and clean everything out and put it back together. fire it up and problem solved. one issue,
this would come back every 3-4 months. i figured it was the ethanol in the gas. one time it ate the needle seat and the car smelled like fuel
everywhere. so i started mixing Cam2 with the pump gas. I'd put 6 gal. of 110 octane in the tank and then fill it with super. run it to 1/2 tank,
fill it, run it to 1/2 tank, fill it, then run it to 1/4 tank. then I'd start the whole process over again. i really don't know the science behind it all
but it did the trick. i haven't  had to clean the carb in 2 years now.

[Jamiez]

Yeah just pump gas, usually 89 or 91, depends on price and if I need to put a full can in the car or if I'm going to use some for the mower (the mower doesn't need 91...)

Some of the pieces, like the diaphragm looked to have dry rot, so I'm not entirely sure the fuel is to blame.  This is the first time I've ever had the carb apart and the last time? Well that's anyone's guess.  I guess I'll know in a few months/year if the gas is to blame or if the gaskets were just plain old.

[joelson6]

i run super, or the highest octane i can get, in everything i own, except the daily driver.
all my old cars, the lawn mower, the weed whacker, chain saw, etc.........
my quad gets Cam2.


when i started racing back in the 90's, i really learned how important octane is. the higher the octane
the cleaner the gas is, even with this lousy gas we have today. the lower octane you have, the worse
the deterioration is of that gas. everyone knows when gas sets, it goes bad and varnishes.  well, if you
have a gal of 89 and a gal of 93, they will both deteriorate at the same rate. in 3 months the 89 will
always be worse off than the 93. for the 20 to 40 cents a gal difference, i'm not that poor that i need to
save 2 or 3 bucks for the junk gas. hell, i pay $9.99 a gal for the Cam2, and i feel it's well worth it. i pay
more for my fuel, and i don't have to take my carbs apart 3 times a season.


little story about my quad,

i went to start it one day, nothing. i tried jumping it, nothing. it wouldn't even turn over. i opened the dipstick
to check the oil and it was like turning on a faucet. gas and oil gushing everywhere. the needle seat was
eaten away from the junk gas, and i was using 93. 5 gallons filled my crank case, piston cylinder and air box.
i had to drain the crankcase, change the oil filter, pull the spark plus and crank the engine to blow out all the
gas in the cylinder. then i had to drain the air box, get a new air filter. remove the carb, completely rebuild it.
i'm never put pump gas in it since and that problem has never happened again.

[Jamiez]

So I did a little adjusting on the carb (float level/idle/etc).  Nothing major, here is what it sounds like now with a rebuilt carb, new plugs, and a basic tuning:

http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz98/j_zahler/Challenger/?action=view&current=a6f07930.mp4

The stumble is pretty much gone, starts are a lot better, fuel is not leaking all over the intake, and the idle is smoother.

I'll have to do a little more advanced tuning but I am really happy with the improvement!

[joelson6]

glad to see it worked out

[Jamiez]

Week 58:

Ever since I started driving the car, the speedometer needle has had a wiggle that smooths out at higher speeds. At one point I pulled the inner cable out, lubed it and it improved but it was never really right.  I finally decided it was time to get a new cable.  It took a lot longer than I hoped to get the new one in place...but judging by the old cable it was definitely time:

mmm...melty.

I also swapped out the front shocks for a new set.  The existing shocks were starting to show some rust and replacements aren't very expensive.  When I pulled the passenger shock off and compressed it, it took a full minute for it decompress.  The driver side wasn't as bad.  Swapping them out wasn't that bad of a job, all the bolts came off easily and compressing them by hand wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.


And finally while I was putting the tire back on I noticed how nice and distinct the body line is on the Challenger so I snapped a quick picture.

[Padawan]

I love that body line on the Challenger!! And I have the same problem with the speed needle, it's like she's telling me "you're driving between 20 and 50 mph".  I should also think about getting a new one and fix the tachometer while I'm at it. Did you pull the Dash or manage to squiggle it through somehow?

[Jamiez]

I changed it with the dash in the car.  It's not easy.  I ended up removing the switch panel to get better access, but still ended up spending a lot of time upside down.  I also had some trouble getting the grommet into the fire wall.  some other lines run close to there and it took a lot to fish it all around and get things where they belong.  I recommend connecting the Speedo side first and then bench testing it (attach a drill to the inner cable and spin it...the needle should move) before attaching it at the trans side.  The trans side is threaded and a lot easier to get on once you jack up the car.

In the end the speedo seems to work a lot better.  It still has a wiggle but the amplitude has been greatly reduced.  I think it still reads high, but I'm guessing the gear was never swapped in the trans to match the tires.  Checking it with a GPS is on my list one of these days.  Gears are pretty cheap ~$30 from what I recall and I don't think they are terrible to replace.