I'll note here, that in the photo above, you can see that there is now plenty of clearance between the fan and the relocated radiator outlet, as documented in Part 5.
At the end of Part 8, I noted that the car was running on starter fluid, but would not continue on the gas in the tank. I concluded that it was the float needle valves stuck shut, and also wondered if the gas was bad. Those two symptoms exactly matched my resurrection of Kate's MG.
Prior owner Mark responded to that post, and said that his experience was that the float valves stuck after a couple of months of non-running, and he was always able to free them. I was reading the Volvo technical manual and corresponding with Mark via email, and concluded that I would just try it, even though I didn't have the correct gaskets in hand in case one tore.
What I discovered is that these older SU carburators are MUCH easier to work on than the HIF4 carbs on Kate's MG. In the photo above, the float bowls are between the two carburators, and can be easily disassembled from the top. Compare that to the HIF4 carbs on Kate's MG - you have to remove the carbs and invert them, gas running everywhere, to get to the floats and valves. In this photo, the HIF4 carb is sideways on a custom stand I made, since I had them apart multiple times:
Anyway, on Beck I could just remove the two float assemblies as a unit, not even unhooking the fuel lines. I inverted them into a bowl. As it turns out, that was an unnecessary precaution, because they were totally dry:
The needle valves are under the floats. I carefully freed them using a small pair of needle nose pliers, and they were ready to go. The float bowls were totally dry and had some silt in the bottom, which I vacuumed out before reassembly.
I disconnected the fuel line and ran the pump long enough to fill a pint container, just to clear the fuel lines, and then put it all back together. A bit of spray ether, and it fired immediately and kept running! The gas in the tank hadn't soured the way Kate's had! Of course, her car had been sitting for much longer than Beck, so the gas had more time to go bad. I will probably still siphon most of the gas out of Beck and run it dry, because I want to remove the tank to clean, seal and paint it.
I ran it for a few minutes, and all was well. No leaks at all, not even a drip of oil. I had good oil pressure, but the water temperature gauge isn't working. It's stuck on 30 C, and I'm sure I ran the temperature higher than that.
I was gratified to see a bit of charging on the ammeter, even at idle:
I'll close with the obligatory video of the car running. I was surprised that the red "Cherry Bomb" muffler actually sounds ok - I may leave it for a while.
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There is still much to do before the car can be driven. You'll remember, from Part 1, that we loosely and partially assembled the front suspension so the TD could be pushed on a trailer. That needs to be removed and sorted. Charlie and Cor insist I should go straight to the disk brake conversion, and I'm leaning that way. I need to install the remote shifter I bought, and the rear axle needs to come out to install the 3.9 rear gear I purchased. Lots of other reassembly and wiring to do also.
But, I'm thrilled that the car is running! And even more thrilled that it is tight, with no smoke, no leaks, no drama. Cool!
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