Well, It's Not The Carburetor

So at the crack of dawn thirty this morning, the jeep junkie calls me wanting to know where that carb is. He had already ordered that rebuild kit from Beachside Auto Parts and Uncle Tom, his service manager, wants to get to rebuilding that thing.

I go out and pull that carb off the olestationbus and head down Daytona Beach way to drop it off. Now, understand, I am not the most mechanically (is that a word?) inclined individual but I was successful in getting that carb removed and transported to Uncle Tom, also known as the Old Man On The Hill, for some unknown reason to me.

So I walk in the jeep junkie's showroom and he is, as always, on the phone, so I went out to the shop to meet with Uncle Tom. Every time I see this dude, the first thing he says to me is "Shut up". We always have a laugh about it. Don't know why we do this but it is funny. So I give Uncle Tom the carb and his comment, "The carburetor on my scooter is bigger than this." I asked him when the last time he had seen one of these was. He told me it before the Kid was born.

Having successfully delivered that carb to the Carb Meister, I head up to return some gasket caulk I had bought with the Kid while the jeep junkie attempted some repairs on the olestationbus last evening.

I had not even gotten back to the Taj Mahal when I get a call from the jeep junkie to tell me the Carb Meister had determined the carb was in great shape and that it was probably the fuel pump. Head back my way, the jeep junkie tells me.

So I did. But first, I stopped by the Taj Mahal to look in the doghouse and see if I could see what I thought a fuel pump was. I even took images.

Upon arrival, again the jeep junkie was on the phone, so I headed out to speak with Uncle Tom. A bit later, the jeep junkie joined us and almost immediately, the old delivery dude from Micheal Waltrip's favorite auto parts store shows up. He looks and me, and like everyone does, asks me if I am Ed's brother. Of course, I say yes but I am better looking. Now, when Ed gets the chance, he says the same thing. Anyway, $40 later I have a new fuel pump for the olestationbus. So Uncle Tom gives me some pointers on how to install this thing and I head back to the Taj Mahal.

Upon arrival, I pop open the doghouse, that is the name of the engine cover on my olestationbus, and look around for the fuel pump. Missing In Action. There is no such device on my 170 cubic inch, 101 horsepower engine. So I promptly call the jeep junkie to inform him of this. He gets me to crawl under the olestationbus and look around.

I must interject here it is about 200,000 degrees out and I am in the parking lot of the Taj Mahal, not under some, cool, shade tree.

So, I do it and, under his tutelage, realize the previous owner of the olestationbus had installed an electric fuel pump, located in the fuel line under this baby and blanked off the area for the mechanical fuel pump.

the jeep junkie tells me to pull the electric fuel pump and head back his way. As always seems to be the case, I followed the jeep junkie's advice.

Got back down to his place and showed off what I had. We walked over to some unsuspecting customer of his car and put the ground wire on that pump to the negative terminal on that battery and the positive wire to the positive terminal. That electric fuel pump worked,

for about 20 seconds and then stopped, the jeep junkie said, "Hang on," and about 10 seconds later it kicked back on. Now we know what the problem is.

So now Uncle Tom comes over and the jeep junkie and Uncle Tom have a discussion about the merits of an original mechanical fuel pump vs. a modern electric one. I asked why would the previous owner of this piece of artwork installed an electric one instead of the mechanical original. The Old Man on the Hill had some pretty good insight to this. "John," he says, "in the 80's and 90's, noone was making these old parts and everyone had to adapt to the current technology. Now, though, with China opening up as it has, they are making these old parts again and that is why NAPA had one in stock."

It is truly amazing how an older mechanic in Daytona Beach, Florida knows this tidbit of information and recognizes how it affects the business he is in.

So it is decided, by them, to install the original mechanical pump and go from there. Just as I was getting ready to head out, the dude from Beachside Auto Parts shows up with the rebuilt kit. Uncle Tom tells the jeep junkie to replace two of the diaphrams, one on each side of the carb, just in case. I then head out for the Taj Mahal.

I realized on my way that I need a couple parts to splice in the fuel line so I swung by Beachside to pick those up. I went in and told Glenn what I needed. As he was in back gathering those parts up, I was talking with the other dude there. I mentioned I was working on my 1963 Falcon Station Bus and that my neighbor came out while I was working on the olestationbus and asked "Was I having problems?", I told Tony "No, I am having fun!!" That got a great laugh from both that dude and Glenn in the back.

He came out and started ringing me up and mentioned he was pulling up the store where the jeep junkie works account. I asked Glenn how he knew that and he said, "If I close my eyes, I hear Ed's voice when you speak and there cannot be two 1963 Falcon Station Bus's within a hundred miles." I laugh, introduce myself, and, as I am leaving, he says, "See ya soon." I concur and we all have a laugh.

As I am driving back up Halifax Drive toward the Taj Mahal, I keep thinking about that fuel pump and, almost, turned around to get an electric one, but decide not to. So I arrive home and spend nearly three hours trying to install that mechanical pump, albeit, with no success.

I was extremely frustrated and getting pissed off, so I called the jeep junkie and asked if he could come to the rescue, once again. Of course, he agreed and mentioned he would be over later. Thanks Bro!!

I called it quits, got the olestationbus weather proofed as it looked like a storm was heading our way and went inside to grab a bite to eat and weather the storm.

At about 7:30, I figured the jeep junkie was not going to show, as I know he has a life of his own and got to checking out some blogs. About 8:30 the jeep junkie called and said he is on the way. He spent a couple hours on the catching end of his daughter's, Taylor, softball pitches.

So he came by and we installed that mechanical fuel pump. the jeep junkie did it the first time and that really pissed me off, but he knew what he was doing.

However, the olestationbus still didn't start. We uninstalled that darn fuel filter and saw one of the pieces designed to go into the engine had sheared off. No Chinese quality parts need to be inserted here, you know what they are.

That piece that had broken off is in the bottom of the oil pan of the olestationbuss, so, tomorrow, I will be under that sweetheart removing the oil pan to retrieve that useless piece of that obsolete part and will be installing a totally unoriginal electric fuel pump so the olestationbus can continue to enjoy life.

I know, pretty boring with no images, but sometimes life is like that.

Still having fun though.