9/28/06

We went to the shop last night after all. I picked John up at his house and we headed that direction. We stopped at Robert's new shop to se if we could pick up the alternator for Mr. Wiggly. He didn’t have it there but said he’d bring it in today and John said he’d get it and bring it on Saturday. We’ll see. We swung by Steve’s Foreign Auto where John bought a thermostat gasket and several valve cover gaskets. I bought an oval air filter base for a DGV with the thought that I'd get an oval filter to put in it. As an aside while I'm thinking about it, I took measurements and ordered an oval filter today but I'm still going to have to figure out a top. Back to the narrative, from Steve’s we went to Lowe’s and John bought some more steel to finish the seat bracket we started lat Saturday. I suggested going to Blank’s where I'd rent another bottle and get the argon we needed but John said to not get argon on his behalf today. We didn’t go to Blank’s. As another aside while I'm thinking about it, I did put the nigh-empty bottle in the back of Matilda. Oh, before we left his side of town we stopped at the tire place to see if they could find the leak in the right front. It was the stem. They tightened it and we’re keeping out fingers crossed. So, at the shop, John pulls his 510 around to change the water pump while I go look at Mr. Wiggly. The doghouse insulation would have been really close to the top of the filter. I trimmed it away right above the carburetor and I think I'm in good shape now. Of course with the oval filter that was unnecessary but I digress. John comes out to have a look and asks why I didn’t install the carburetor rotated ninety-degrees so the throttle linkage would line up. I said, “Because you are supposed to install them with the float bowel facing forward,” which you are by the way, “and I didn’t want the throttle to ‘favor’ the front or rear set of cylinders.” What I meant by that is I wanted the throttle to “tip in” towards the middle of the gap between the sets of cylinders and not toward the front or rear set. With it rotated the primary opens toward the front three and the secondary opens to the back. John pointed out that everything chokes down into the single hole where the stock one-barrel was before going to the plenum. I made the float bowel argument again saying that they are designed to not uncover the main jets under acceleration when oriented the “right” way. We both agreed that those recommendations were for race engines and I probably wouldn’t outrun the float bowel in Mr. Wiggly. I took it all under advisement and had one more look at the throttle to pedal situation and decided to give it a shot. I took the adapter off and re-drilled it then put it back on. I used the left/right threaded rod and ball/stud thingies that came with the ICT carburetors for the VW to connect the pedal to the carburetor. It worked! I could mash the pedal and the throttle opened. It needed a return spring though. I thought on that while I watched John change the water pump on his car. Finally it hit me, I could put the return spring on the pedal end and connect it to the manifold. I found the long throttle return spring I knew I had and did just that. Now after mashing the pedal to get full throttle it returns to idle. I'm quite pleased. Oh, I did have to lengthen the fuel inlet hose and I should lengthen the vacuum advance hose, but it all fit pretty well. I think it is going to work! Now having said all of that, I put in a bid for a dual one-barrel manifold from Australia this morning. Eh, so sue me for being fickle. My thinking was to use the ICT carburetors on that manifold. John shot that down because they are jetted way too lean for a Slant Six. The next thought was to use three ICT carburetors! There is a balance tube between the two carburetors where I could conceivably mount the third carburetor. I'd have to come up with a progressive linkage system but I don’t think that would be all that tough. I've got something really simple in mind but the secondary carburetors wouldn’t open all the way. It’ll just take some work I guess. Of course I'll probably be outbid on the thing anyway so it is most likely moo. Well, I think I'll let y’all stew on that for a while. By the way, I know the word is “bowl,” I said “bowel” on porpoise.