cali-carl kammback

[mojobean]

The current on the slab project is a 81 california emission kammback. When we got it the clutch slave cylinder was so badly corroded you couldn't push the clutch in.  The PO replaced the friction and pressure plate but not the slave cylinder.  To pull the shifter out the PO cut a slot in the tranny hump to peel back the sheet metal to get access to the three bolts. The bell housing was cracked at the ear where one of the starter thru bolts was at.  The front diff was hanging OK but the bolts weren't tight.  The exhaust is gone.  What I've done thus far.  I pulled the tranny and the bell housing, repaired the ear by welding and and shaping, then reinstalled.  replaced the U-joint bolts with grade 8 allen head cap bolts.  Replaced the hard lines, slave and master clutch cylinder,Brake booster, master brake cylinder and the two hard lines going to and from the proportioning valve.(all with spare parts from my stock) I yarded out the ECM, and the feedback carb.  I am replacing it with a non feedback BBD, I got the rebuild kit today and will be soaking and cleaning this week. I'm  replacing the stepper motor carb with a non feedback from an 80 concord.  I've checked the wiring diagrams for the ECM Test and compared what I have on "cali-carl" to the brown "big-boy" kammback that came from here in washington.  For the ECM I would supposedly have two wires going from the ECM to the distributor.  All the wires into my distributor come directly from the four way plug coming from The ignition module. Same as the "big boy" washington kammback, and the same plug formation/orientation.  What I'm thinking is that I could place the non-feedback carb on, with same wiring setup, leaving the stepper motor wiring, and the ECM mess disconnected. 
 

[mojobean]

I pulled the fuel tank yesterday.  The gas might well have been from 2004, as the tags read.  The sending unit was corroded and the float was half eaten away.  The gas has that orange color and the "submarine smell" (the only other place I've smelled that was in a submarine and the sub smelled better.).  The PO had cut the fuel vent line  at the check valve and just left it.  I put my spare tank in and the spare fill neck and strapped it all back together.  I'm currently soaking the old concord carb and it looks  a sight better than the tank, but dirty,dirty,dirty.
I'll post pics as soon as I remember how to do it. 

[IowaEagle]

How is the tank itself?

[mojobean]

 
I didn't think anyone would reply to my post.
The tank itself is great on the outside, in fact it still has tags that read the name of the dealership in California.  The inside however is filth,  it looks like the sending unit ( I'll post pics I swear).  Between the sending unit and the tank the O ring looked Ok but it was too large, and I think it got contaminated with water.

[Pack Rat]

Does it look like this on the inside?



The only thing I can think of, car related anyway,that smells worse than old dead gas is burned up auto tranny fluid, burned up 80W gear oil in a rear end that was run with a leak until there wasn't much oil left in it or 60 year old gear oil.

[priya]

Nice to see the ladies getting in the thick of it.  Mojobean - you go girl!

[Mavericke]

I just saw this post, lol... before I saw you mention "I thought no one was going to reply to this", I had noticed the date of the first post and your first reply... I was like, dang, how'd I miss this one? Two days and no replies, lol.. I didn't think it was THAT boring, LMAO!!!

Hey, looks like you've got a got a good start... you're saving all the old "dirty" parts too right? You can clean that tank and filler neck.

And when the heck were you a sub? Not often you hear of a female in a sub!

Keep up the good work!

[mojobean]

Havent gotten a photo of the inside of the tank yet.. chargin the camera battery right now. but heres some shots of the outside, the sending unit (ugh), and all the nasty gas that was in there. the brown crud in the bottom of the pail is what the old gas looked like.



as far as the submarine.. i'll find my photos of that to enlighten everyone.  I agree about the old gear oil, nothin worse than gettin that stuff in your hair.

[Mavericke]

I bet thats what mine looks like on both of my SX4's... they both sat for years... I never cleaned out the tanks. Just filled them to brim with some gras treatment to dilute the nasty stuff as much as possible... then I never let it drop below half a tank, just kept filling it up to dillute it more and more... then finally, I just ran it totally dry... carried a can of gas with me for a week in the orange SX4 just waiting for it to run out of gas and die, lol!  Recently, I syphoned (spelling?) some gas out of it and it was totally clean. The only time it ran rough was when I first fired her up after sitting for several years. It literally blew out cobwebs for about 10-15m and then she ran great. I did this on both of my SX4's.

It's probably not the best way to do this.... Mojo is doing the "right" thing to do. I'm just sharing my experience for the guys that don't have the time or knowledge to clean the tank or swap in a new one.... or if you just had the idea I did, which was - to heck with it, I'm ripping it all out soon anyways.

So yeah anyways... my gas guage is stuck on both vehicles. I'm guessing the float has disintegrated.

[mojobean]

I pulled the radiator out while everything was frozen, the fins were corroded and it will have to be re-cored. 

 I finished rebuilding the carb and it put it back in, after spending two days trying to figure out my choke.  I put the tang for the unloader in backwards so everytime the coil expanded it closed the choke.   I went with the 49 standard vacuum diagram and reworked all the hoses per spec.  I'm going to fab a braket today for the diverter valve and put in a single air injection system that I had laying around.  I pulled out the mcu like I said then I pulled out the stepper/mcu harness and hooked all the loose electrical connections back where they go save for two-one I'm not sure where it goes(maybe to the trans) the other is a ground I have to splice a spade on and connect to the firewall.  Then later today perhaps I'll work up a gravity feed fuel supply can and hang it over the carb and drip fuel into the carb and try to fire it up.  

pic of corroded tank sending unit:

[IowaEagle]

That is one nasty sending unit.

[83Eagle!]

Thanks for sharing this project.  Looks like you have some work on your hands, but it looks like it is coming along nicely.

[mojobean]

got everything hooked up and put the gravity feed fuel system in.  I can fire it up and it starts but wont stay running.  Im going to check the timing, and if that seems ok, I'll pull all the vacuum and run it like the  blue sx4, and leave the air injection open.

[mojobean]

I pulled all the vacuum and ran what I consider to be the bare essentials.  I can get it to fire and run somewhat smooth with the choke closed with about a .125 gap to the air horn.  I figured it was running to lean, so I adjusted the vacuum piston gap and turned the allen screw in to enrichen it.  I got it bottomed all the way with little difference.  Idle mixture screws are at 2 1/2 out.
thought I'd take a break, its wet out.  Seattle winter
I was just reading some other posts in the fuel systems.  Currently there is a gravity feed feeding the carb,  How much does the fuel pump pressure play in the mix? 

[mojobean]

right on,  I'll back the idle screws out more to see if I can get it to run richer, double check for more vacuum leaks, probably just run the PCV and the distributor for now.  When I rebuilt the carb I couldnt get the main jets to budge so I cleaned them out the best I could just by soaking ....In an answer to my own question, it would seem having the fuel pump hooked up to the gravity feed is the way to go.  After I did that it stayed idling just fine.  I suppose the circuits need a fair amount of pressure for all the air bleeds to work ..So I got it running, now I'm off to get fuel and check out the system with a vacuum gauge and fiddle around with some small stuff before I tackle the brakes.
AAAAgh my starter just broke, the internal housing snapped off.