Cooling and Carb

Time to get down to business, starting with keeping all the fluids inside.

First things first: I had a gas leak out the bottom of the float bowl, where the O-ring that kept the gas in had hardened and was not sealing any more.  So off came the carb!

The carb is in pretty good shape.  The water choke is functional, everything moves and no seals appear to be affected (other than that O-ring).  Here's the insides.

I checked the float, needle and seat and they appear to be fine, so I left them alone.  I did a little cleanup and put everything back together untouched, being sure to line up the reference mark on the water choke heat mass with the marks on the carb and spacer.  It ought to work fine, right?

From there, I moved on to the cooling system.  First things first: all the hoses had to go, and the radiator came out.

Then, it was time to move the air pump and remove the alternator so I could replace the water pump.  And of course, I changed the water pump.  The old pump seemed fine - but I wasn't going to trust it.

Things cleaned up pretty well.  The front seal and timing cover aren't leaking right now, so they're not getting touched either.  I am sure I will regret that decision.

There isn't much else to tell - I installed the new pump, replaced the hoses and radiator (and cap), and bolted the carb back into place.  I also changed the air pump check valve and some cracked vacuum lines.  It doesn't look any different; perhaps a bit cleaner.

The moment of truth was firing things up.  The car runs okay, but I suspect there is a vacuum leak somewhere because it runs leaner than before (as evidenced by some backfiring on overrun and not spinning up as well).  But I'll deal with that later.  I did get everything up to temp, and not only are there no leaks but the cooling system is functioning.  I didn't replace the thermostat, but it is opening at the right temp.  I did buy one to replace it eventually.

I also replaced the points/condenser, cap and rotor and did a little cleanup on the distributor.  The old points were really burned, and the cap and rotor were okay but are cheap replacements.

On to the next job!