I don't need the engine, but I could use an M41. Hmmmm.

Why??

I'm still deaf from the M40 in my 145, so anything that lowers the revs in the Smurf on the highway seems like a good thing.

NM...I was thinking the Smurf should have an M45, not and M40. However, I happen to have a couple of M41 transmissions hanging around that I doubt will get used...

Righty-o!
Look what we have here.

A new steering rack! The old one wasn't holding ANY oil, so it was time for a swap. This went in in a couple hours a couple nights ago. Thanks to Matt and Craig for helping me get this rack.

Craig also welded up the hole in my oil pan (still no idea where that came from), and showed me how to pack the front outer bearings. Craig also made me new plug and coil wires. Thanks dude! I put new NGK's in. Started fixing cracked vacuum hoses. Wiper blades. What else....I've started taking apart the doors to lube all the internals, I bled the brakes AGAIN as they're still mushy. One rear wheel stud was stripped, so I changed that out. There is plenty of evidence of extreme impact use on this car....stripped studs, stripped bolts holding the transmission crossmember on (which they fixed by chiseling holes in the frame on either side to put on new nuts), and the front engine crossmember is dented by the right u-bolt by the rack, and the aluminum spacer cracked. Someone put on those nuts on the rack with an impact. Brutal.

So last night, the first real drive of the car took place. Wheels were mounted, and I went out for a quick spin. The car pulled nicely actually. The suspension sits HIGH in the front, no need to slow down for bumps with this thing! The car drove perfectly for the first 10 minutes, and then it started to hesitate. I got all the way to Craigs, and it started to buck, and wouldn't respond to throttle input. I dragged it home barely running and got it back into the garage. The pumps were loud by the end too. So I'm guessing the pump is pooched? Ideas? I seem to recall this happening to me before. Pump gets hot, starts to die. Anyone got a fuel pump for a '75?

What else. No reverse lights. Heater control valve appears to be not fully opening. When I hit the brakes, the bulb out warning light comes on. Oh, and if I put the car into any gear, the seat belt warning light comes on, with a brief beep from the buzzer! Weird stuff.

I'd change the fuel filter before doing anything else. It's possible all the crud in the tank has plugged it up...

Good call. I've got a new one sitting on the shelf. Now that there's some fresh gas in the tank, I'll change it out. I drove it briefly again tonight, and it started hesitating immediately. It idles fine, and will respond to throttle in neutral, but once under load, it dies completely.

That could be the filter for sure...given the amount of gunk that was on the rest of the car and the vintage of the old gas, I'd change that filter.

I know exactly what you're going through...

Do tell?

Filter has been changed, to no effect. I have since changed the pump, only to find that my replacement pump has a small crack in the housing. It's leaking just a drip. Crap. While the car appears to be running better, I haven't really driven it long enough to be sure.

Not much other progress. Door panels have all been taken off, and the insides lubricated. Hopefully I can dig up a different pump this week.

A memory just triggered: Once upon a time, when I had a carburated '77, I had some fuel delivery troubles that turned out to be related to tank ventilation. The car would start to hesitate and eventually flame out after driving it for some time, and it was difficult to get the gas cap off for all the vacuum in the tank when this happened. Since your car doesn't have an in-tank pump and relies on the siphon effect to feed the main pump, ANY vacuum in the tank can cause trouble. The early K-jet single-pump setup was dropped for good reason.

Of course you can switch to a post-77 tank and upgrade to the dual-pump setup, if you like... It's pretty much a drop in, but you'll have to run wires for the in-tank pump.

Just drill a hole in the top of the tank. That should eliminate any vacuum issues...

I suppose you could try it with no gas cap to test this theory...

The '76 cars have a tank recall with no limitation on years here in the US. I'm not sure if that applies to '75s or canada, but many many 76s got late model tank retrofits at the dealer without the annoying single pump mickey mouse thing being the result IIRC. To this day, once in a blue moon a guy with a 76 240 gets the tank changed out to the late model one in portland at the dealer. I'd laugh if you had legal right to make a dealer change the tank out on your ~35 year old car.

If you have a turbo parts car with a good tank, main pump, lines, and larger filter, I'd start raiding all of that for the fuel delivery about now. The late model 740/940T tank pump is a nice upgrade, especially for a k-jet car. K-jet hates bad fuel delivery. I usually sort the fuel delivery (usually it needs everything between the tank and fuel dist checked out and clean) and vacuum on a k-jet car first, then start adjusting it to make it really sing along. Then again, for whatever sick and strange reason, K-jet just makes sense to me. Part of why it took me so long to make my red car EFI was that I was actually faster at diagnosing k-jet cars.

Hmmmmm, interesting. Good info. Thanks guys. Next time I start the car, I'll check at the cap to see if there's any pressure. Matt, I hadn't considered that as an option even. Its strange that would even happen on a carbed car. How is there even enough pressure to make that happen? How did you solve it?

I had already considered swapping in the in-tank pump, but if the tanks themselves are different, that's a whole lot more work, though I suppose it wouldn't take that long. The idea of getting a whole Turbo setup doesn't sound all that bad either. It seems like there's probably a lot of crud in this system. Currently, I don't think the cold start is firing either, so it wouldn't surprise me if the system has some goop plugging it up.

Tonight I'll do some testing I think.