Car was running when last parked 2 years ago.  Emptied the old gas and put in new.

I can get the car to start but it'll use up the fuel in the front float and then die.  Rear float doesn't seem to be doing a whole lot and it seems as though I'm running on the front 3 cylinders only.

I had 2 extra float tops sitting around so I adjusted them both as per the ztherapy video suggestion.  Installed those and same thing.

I've removed the fuel supply line to the front float and started the car.  Fuel came out of the supply line so I know there is fuel going through the rail.

Anyone have suggestions or thoughts on why the front float is not filling back up?

Could be some sort of blockage in the carb, did you ensure fuel is getting out of the rail? Can do so by disconnecting the hoses and placing 2 cups at the end.

next step after you verify that would be that the float filters are clean, they are within the barn connector and the float lid, after that would be verification that the needle itself is clean, which you can remove and clean. 

Alright, making some progress.

Rear carb had something plugging the line from the float.  Now we're firing on all 6 cylinders.

Front float still wasn't filling, but maybe I misunderstood ztherapy's way of adjusting the float.  I removed the float top and tried to blow air through the fuel inlet while the float was hanging down (which should mean fuel can flow in) but it was blocked.  Couldn't blow air through.  In the video he's adjusting the float while it's upside down and measuring the 9/16 as his adjustment.  If I do this, it closes the valve to let fuel in regardless of the float being up or down.

Is the 9/16 measurement only from when the tab on the float touches the grose jet?

 

Also I did clean the float filters.

Edited April 13, 20204 yr by Ptero

You're using the wrong words and maybe replaced or adjusted the wrong parts.  The float bowls are what fills with fuel.  The floats are what rise up and close the needle valve when the bowl is full.  It sounds like your front float needle might be stuck closed.

What year car and what carbs?

haha yeah I'm probably using the wrong words.  The words coming from you are what my words are trying to say.

I pulled the float needle apart and made sure it wasn't binding.

Trying to find out the year of the carbs as we speak.  Was looking to see if I could find any sort of identifier.  Looking at this attachment, there are different float levels for the different years of carbs.

They're round top carbs.

 

TechnicalSupportBulletin-TS73-10.PDF

Edited April 13, 20204 yr by Ptero

It’s would probably be best at this point for you to search the forum for some float adjustment threads (there are a lot) there’s ton of good information in them. 

Alright.  Got it straightened out.

Initially I was adjusting the float upside down and relying on the spring inside the float needle to keep the measured distance.  This didn't seem to work for me as it would keep the float needle closed regardless of where the float sat in the bowl.

What I ended up doing was adjusting the float as it were sitting in the bowl, not upside down.  Made a tool for the 9/16 measurement and raised the float up to that measurement while blowing air into the fuel inlet.  I could hear air coming through the float needle right up until I raised the float to the desired measurement and then I could not longer blow air through.

I'm probably using the wrong words again, but hopefully this makes sense.

So, the 2 problems were floats set incorrectly and probably old fuel gunked up in the rear float bowl which stopped proper flow of fuel to the carb.

It took me about 3 months to figure out what you did today!

That upside down way on the dvd won't work with the needle valves, apparently only the Grose valve with the ball instead of a needle or pin. I sure wish they'd made that clear when I bought my rebuild kit and dvd but it was fun I guess. 

There's a thread or two on here now, your adding another one. Good work.

6 hours ago, siteunseen said:

It took me about 3 months to figure out what you did today!

That upside down way on the dvd won't work with the needle valves, apparently only the Grose valve with the ball instead of a needle or pin. I sure wish they'd made that clear when I bought my rebuild kit and dvd but it was fun I guess. 

There's a thread or two on here now, your adding another one. Good work.

It took me almost 3 years to start working on the car so you're still ahead of me haha.