Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Meet Bob. He's a four time tire rotation champion. When
he was a baby, his first words were automatic transmission fluid.
Bob's so cool he has engine coolant running through his veins.
And then there's Kyle, also as Premium unletted. Legend has
it that Kyle can change your oil with his toes,
(00:21):
and that he can tell your tires ille pressure just
by how you're walking. He's Bob, He's Kyle, and every
Saturday morning they morphed together to form the greatest superhero
known to man. Mister Mechanic check engine lights, don't stand
a chance. This is the Mister Mechanic Show on eleven ten, kfab.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Great Saturday morning to you. This is a Mister Mechanic show.
Five five, eight, eleven ten is the numbers to get in.
This is an interactive call in show. And you got
the questions, We'll give you some answers. Had you in
the right directions. And boy, that was a that was
a quick week, wasn't the Kyle? Yeah it's only seven days. Jeez,
here we are again.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I can say that if you own any type of
Chrysler where a three point six leader in it, odds
are that I've had my hands on it this week.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
They got problems.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
It's been a week as far as the three.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Six yep cam problems, phaser problems there, it's.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Been a week for christ I mean there is not
an automotive system that I have not repaired this week.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
On that. Yeah, because we had all sorts of minivans, cars, trucks.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
I did two sets of camshafts, some phasers, uh no
communication diagnostic on a van, and then today I just
finished up a heater box job on a jeep.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah. Yeah, the so there's a car we want you
to go get because it works good for us.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Oh, I'm great at them. I love them. Yeah, I
even bought one.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Every car's got it's uh, every car's got it's problematic things.
It doesn't matter what it is. Some cars are way
less than others, but.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
They all got something.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
They've all got something. They're they're they're complicated, they're they're
complicated machines. And now you almost need to be have
an electrical engineering degree to be able to uh probably
get involved with some of these electronic are not electronic,
but the the evs because everything is elect I mean,
you've got you've still got tires, And we still do
(02:35):
a lot of tires on on the EV just because
they are heavy and the tires that they put on
out of the factory are not as good as they
could be, and they're cambered in so bad in the
rear in order to have any kind of stability on
the thing, that they just wear tires out completely.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
It's really about it. I mean breaks. I mean you
don't you don't need breaks on an EV.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
No breaks, yeah, because as you put it in the
regeneration mode and you can take that in and out
if you want. Because drive on.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Why you would? I mean, well, that's a comfortable drive anyway,
it's a weird drive. Yeah. The first time you get
in there, I'm like, what.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
It's it's weird to be able to left off the
brake just before you think you're going to hit somebody
and it just goes wrong. But normally you'd be on
the brake way sooner than that in a normal car.
But in some cards you can take off that regeneration.
Therefore you use the brakes more. But I don't. I
don't think have you ever done instead of brakes on
an EB car? No?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
I have you know, because we do schooling for everything.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Been a part of that.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
And you know, the guy that did the class is
all evy and mainly he said, you do brakes because
they fall apart. You will get friction materials that literally
just come off the metal because they don't ever get used.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
They don't get touched right right, Well, they're all glued
on anyway. It was some amazing glue. I might add,
I don't know what that is, but I think that's
what holds the Space shuttle together or are in the rockets.
You know, why don't they use that glue to put
the tiles on the heat shield tiles on the outside
of the rockets that go into space.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Maybe they do. We don't know that for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Well they're coming off. You can see it on the
on the one of mus things. The other day some
of the tiles come off well and want to check
the yard. So clearly somebody's not using that break glue,
that's for sure. I'll tell you what. So you know,
I was going to touch on this real quick. You know,
(04:36):
some of these EV cars require home chargers and they
are going to there there just starting to talk about
legislation that you're not going to be able to if
you buy an EV just hook up your own charger.
You're gonna have to have an electrician come out, which
is a job. Do whatever you've got to do in
(04:56):
the house that you have, and this, that or the other.
New house is going to be easier than an old
house and you're gonna have to have all that stuff
hooked up. So it's gonna cost you an extra five
hundred to a grand fifteen hundred. That maybe a little light, Well,
it depends on what you're doing. I mean, just to
get a cable to the to the wall so that
you can plug yours in. Yes, it could go higher
(05:16):
than that, depending on where your meter socket's at and
just where your garage is located. Oh yeah, yeah, so
there's not it's just not gonna be an easy plug in.
You know, your shop light and off you go to
charge your car because.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
No fire safety sprinkler system.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Well that you know that's probably gonna come next. It
really is. Well why wouldn't you want to have one
of those in your garage if you've got something that
could potentially.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
I don't know if they put out an EV, but
it'll definitely slow it down. Yeah, yeah, no, enough to
get out of the house anyway, exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
And that's all you're looking for. All right, We're gonna
head over to Doug. Doug's got a twenty twelve Nissan pickup. Doug,
what's up today?
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Hi guys.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
I'm a previous caller. I was your vice. I'll got
two those twelve Nissa with thirty five k on it's
the Frontier and I have never done anything to the
radiator and all those you're mostly driven around town. Do
I need What do I need to do on the
radiator at this point in time? It's not get overheater
and that it's fine.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Yeah, yeah, that needs to be maintenanced. Generally, the rule
of thumb is every five years, five years or you know,
thirty thousands beyond that, but yeah, every five years. Just
get it out of there, That's what I do. I mean,
I don't drive a ton of miles anymore. I mean
I drive maybe four miles a day, But every five years,
(06:34):
you want to get that out of there because it
does corrode to a certain effect. And I mean just
to flush it out, pulls a bunch of stuff out,
put new fre new fresh ading freeze.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
The chemicals, the chemicals, the chemicals break down. Yeah, yeah,
you can, yeah, drop the lower hose right now. You
can certainly flush it out with the hose to get
some more out, but the chemicals kind of just break
down over a period of time. And really, Anna freeze
is twofold. First off, it's a rust inhibitor and that's
its that's its first job. And second job is to
(07:05):
keep the aner freeze so it doesn't freeze, or the
water so it doesn't freeze. But because if you put
straight water in there on a on a on a
cast iron block, it'll be mud within years. It'll just
be so rusty you can't get it out and be done.
So that's the reason that you're changing it.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
So do I need to use Proparetary, Nissan an freeze
or just any kind of good name brand Andrew's the.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Work correct good.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
There's a good Universal out there, import Universal anti freeze
and it's yellow. It'll mix with anything and you're going
to be a okay using that.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Okay, yep, no problem.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
One of the questions, the car has a currently a
warning sign for a tire sensor. I know which wheel
it is, but you know, check the pressure and I've
had the tire checks not tire. It's the censer. So
is how expensive and how difficult is to change the
tire sensor on the front wheel on a Nissan pickup
like that? You have to reprogram the center mm hmm,
(07:59):
yeah you do on that car.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah, okay, yeah, so you're.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
The center.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah, I mean we do them for parts and labor
and re you know, recalibration anything. You do it anywhere
from about one hundred one hundred and fifty bucks because
there's more into it. You got to have a machine
that we'll be able to recalibrate it, read it, install it,
and then test drive it, make sure the light goes out.
You know. Some summer easy let me tell you. Some
are super easy. Some of you just throw in and
(08:28):
drive and by the time you get out, you know,
turn the first corner, it's done. And other ones are
a large pain in the you know. So it all
depends on They're probably in the middle of the pain category.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
M nothing that can be done.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
Okay, that's why I need guys. Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
Appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
You bet appreciate the call. Yeah, isn't it. You know,
the early on of tire pressure sensors and trying to
get those to relearn.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Oh, it was a nightmare. Toyota was the absolute worst
you had. If you had to replace the sensor, you
had to go in there. You had to write every
digit of this fifteen digit code on the sensor though.
Yeah you know, I couldn't read in a magnifying glass
to read this number. And if you're off by one,
you're not getting that light up. Yeah, they were all
over again.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
And believe we're just talking about christ for products that
they are one of the easiest. Yeah, you just throw
it in go drive and it's done.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Yeah, there's nothing to it.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Tota was the worst. It's not anymore. They've they've since
solved that problem and now you know it can be
handled other than just but that was the early days
of that. But there's a guy that anymore. He took
a bunch of PVC pipes and put the sensors in
there and just filled them up with air and throw
it in the trunk of the car. That's it.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yeah, they aren't even in the wheel.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
It doesn't care. It just needs to know that it's
thirty five pounds.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Yeah, there's thirty five pounds in this PVC tube in
the back. And yeah, you can just got it in
the glove sensors in here, and two sensors in the
front of the car, and a PCV tube in the
glove box, and here you go, you tire light for me.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
He's a guy that has more time on his hands
and he just wants to see what he can do
to bypass something. Yeah, he's a pretty good plumb accomplished it. So, uh,
you don't want that thing to pop when you're airing
it up?
Speaker 3 (10:22):
All right?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Uh, answer one more? All right, we're gonna take a
quick break in the Mister Mechanic Show. We backed to
answer some more calls, five, five, eight, eleven, tens of
numbers to get in.
Speaker 6 (10:31):
How many questions about the Mister Mechanic show? Just ask Siri?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Hey, Siri, who is the real mister Mechanic?
Speaker 1 (10:39):
He's a god among men, a true mechanical genius, a
wrench in a box full of nuts?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Right, But like, who is he? Like, what's his name?
Speaker 3 (10:49):
He's a car whisperer, a true autopar Einstein, an automobile casanova.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah, I get all that. Like he's great with cars,
got it?
Speaker 1 (10:57):
But what's his real name?
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Oh it's Steve.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Oh makes sense.
Speaker 6 (11:04):
I have guard questions, then just ask Siri the mechanic
or better yet, call in to the mister mechanic shoe.
They gotta know what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Right now, we're gonna head over to Vince. Vince has
got a sixty four Impala. Vince, what's up today?
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Yes, I got a nineteen sixty four Impala.
Speaker 7 (11:21):
We just had it rebuilt and I got it home.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
And when you started, it starts just great.
Speaker 7 (11:30):
And then when you start driving it and stuff, then
you stop park it, then you get in and again
it's hard to start. And if I can get it going,
you know, then it'll run again.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
I have back pressure in the gas tank, so we
went with a vented one.
Speaker 7 (11:51):
And it's not venting it. I guess as much.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
But anyway, I didn't know if that was the problem
or what it is.
Speaker 7 (11:56):
But it's not running smooth when you run.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
When you drive, it d good and you can stop
stop science.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
So so tell me what hard start means? So are we.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
It's not it's not a car would.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Okay, okay, But a hard start to us means one
of five different things. So we're not cranking hard? Are
we cranking hard? Like we've got to? Well, y, yeah,
but that don't mean nothing. So uh yeah, is a
cranking hard because the engine is tight? And uh okay,
so are we cranking hard because we've got bad connections
(12:37):
aground and things like that. That's all doing great.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
So its healthy when it's cranking over Okay. As far
as compression motorise.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I've got to ask because we've seen the gamut of
this kind of problem. So so you're talking hard starting
like it's not getting any particular fuel up to the
from the gas tank up.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
It's turned since started and it then finally it kicked
in and then if you don't get on the gas right.
Speaker 7 (13:05):
Away, it just dies.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Mhmm.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Okay, after a couple of times like that, I can
get it going, baby, you know, pump the gas a
little when I get it started.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
What kind of carburetor you got on this car? Is
it the original?
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Got the original?
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Okay? So it's an old Rochester.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
I I didn't didn't look anyway, So well, guess where
I'm going to start at?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Here is I'm gonna get I'm gonna go to the
hardware hardware store or part store and get a little
carbretor cleaner. And then I already got that okay. So
if you shoot a little bit of carburetor cleaner in
it and crank the car, does it seem to fire
right off?
Speaker 5 (13:41):
No?
Speaker 4 (13:41):
I hadn't done that. I just the carburetor has all
been rebuilt. Everything's been rebuilt, car, the engine yep.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Still still don't care about that, Yep.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
I've had to go into a bunch of them twice exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
So if so, we're telling you what we would do.
So I'm going to spray a little bit of car
bread cleaner in there when you're having the problem. I'm
gonna shoot a little bit of carburetor cleaner in the
in the intake part of it, and then I'm gonna
go fire it off and see if it just fires
right off. If fire's right off, I know I got
a fuel problem. If it doesn't fire right off, I've
(14:14):
got something else going on, like a spark problem.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
I'm gonna bet that whoever did you rebuild this carburetor?
Speaker 4 (14:23):
No professional mechanic.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Okay, because old carburetors. Old carburetors are full of old sludge,
especially the idle circuit. So I mean, yeah, you can
soak them overnight. Great, that's awesome. We did everything by
the book and it's still bad. Took it all apart, Okay,
(14:46):
doesn't matter. Doesn't matter, because there's you can't take a
carburetor completely apart. I mean it's veined in there. You
have to go in there with a piece of hard
copper wire and go through all these time any tiny
passages and clean all that stuff out.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah, and this has nothing to do with the guy
that's overhauling the carburetor. I mean I've hold overhead carburetors
for forty years and Kyle has done it for thirty years.
So and I can tell you that sometimes like what
I've done is I've taken the old Rochester and I'd
just thrown it away and then I went out and bought
myself on a Carter or an Edelbrock as they call it.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Thefbes are the most reliable carburetors all I've ever worked.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Well, Yes, they do not have a problem all the
way around.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
If you want to afb carburetors, Carter Edelbrock style carburetors. Yes,
the Rochesters were great. They were I mean, they worked fine.
But I mean when you get old ones like this,
sometimes they just are not rebuildable.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
And the passages get narrow and they cause problems because
everything is on a air bleed or a Venturi style
section when it comes to pulling fuel into the carburetor,
and we're basee this on. It's a carburetor fuel issue.
If if you fire some carburetor cleaner in there and
(16:09):
it doesn't just fire right off, immediately run for a second, die,
then we know that we got a carburetor problem. So
what we'll do is shoot some in there and have
somebody crank it over, and we'll keep that carburetor stuff
on there, keep it running with it, keep it running
with it, so we know that the problem is there.
And then sometimes I have taken the fuel line completely off,
(16:29):
filled the choke bowl completely full carburetor cleaner, so it's
on a different fuel and see how it runs. But
it sounds like you're leaning towards a carburetor issue.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Yeah, it's the idle circuit is having an issue with
this car. Because clearly off idol we can run, Our
ventury is working, our float system is working. You're if
you're not flooding over your bowl, that all seems to
be working fine. It's a matter of why aren't we idling,
are we not? We're not carbo.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
It's just when I started.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Okay, well that's your item.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
After it's been running and I turned it off, then
I try and start it. Once I get it running again,
it runs through.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Okay. Is if the next question, is it flooding over?
Speaker 4 (17:16):
No, not that I can see. I mean it isn't.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Okay, Well, just because you can't see it flooding over
doesn't mean it's not vapor flooding over. And you're if
vapor floods over, then you're sending uh, you're sending vapors into.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
THEREND is just overwhelming your air cleaner box with vapor
and yep, the same as like a perg so annoyed
on a modern car. But I'm leaning towards a carburetor issue.
And like I say, just because it's rebuilt, I've had
to go through a lot of them more than once.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
It's just part of the game.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
And I mean, we've got a sixty year old car
here that has sixty year old parts on it. We
rebuild them.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
And yeah, you know, yeah, just yeah, everything everything's original.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Save yourself, Yeah, save yourself some time and money and effort,
and you can get you can get him from o' riilly's.
Are about four hundred and fifty bucks to buy and everything.
You got to buy a couple other kids to hook
the the the UH.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Tables, maybe a spacer plate for the intake. But yep,
it's going to be cheap and you're gonna have a
turnkey car when you're done.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
In fact, I just got I just got done doing
one of these. What but two months ago the guy,
the the shipper would not ship it until he could
make the thing run, and he wanted me to overhaul
the carburetor, and I told him I wouldn't do it.
I said, if you want it fixed, you want it
fixed right. Because he was moving to Washington. I said,
I'll fix this up so it absolutely has no issue.
Then when you get done and pull it off the
(18:49):
truck in Washington, you'll have a car you can drive.
He says, well, i'd like that because it hasn't run
right in years. So that's what I did for him,
And I just heard back from him. Oh a bottom, Yeah,
about a month ago. He says, everything's growing beautiful. So yeah,
all right, I hate to tell you that, Vince, but
I think that's the path you're going.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
What about the what about the backup pressure and the
gas tank? Is that any concern?
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Well, you don't really have that. Uh, you've got a
vented gas cap for the most part. You should have
a vented gas cap.
Speaker 7 (19:24):
I do.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
When I take to take it loose, it goes.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Well, that's pressure, and pressure is going to push fuel
down the line to your pump. So I don't know
that I'm necessarily terribly concerned with that right now. Look
at the vent system for that tank, because I'm not
one hundred percent sure on a Chevy how how they vent.
(19:50):
But I know on my car, my sixty two forward,
the vent tube goes up and across a pipe to
the back of the trunk and down to the wheel
well where it vents. So is that tube clear as
a spider got in there and made a nest to
where we can't vent vapor. I mean, it should just
be a free flowing, no pressure involved tank.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
But if there's fuel in the float bowl when you
shut it off, there's still fuel in the football a
float bowl that should be able to start back right up. Yeah,
regardless of what if you've got the gas once, if
you've got zero in the tank and the float bowls full.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
You're running, you're running.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
You should shut it off and be able to start
it back up. I don't care what's what's in the tank.
It's you know, isn't a problem. You're your needle and
seat is going to stop that? Yeah, for the for the.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Yeah, I don't think that this is your problem. But
I would definitely look at the vent side of that
gas tank and see how that's working.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
I can't tell you how many cars in the past
that we've dropped gas tanks out in order to move
them around. We'll fill the float bowl full of carburetor
stuff and lot drive it. There's no gas, I think,
can it? Yeah, we've been there, done that.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Yeah, try it, Vince, get a look at the Vench
system on that tank. You'll be good.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
All right, all right, we're gonna take a quick break
of the miss Mechanics show. Five, five, eight, eleven, tens
numbers to get in. Be back in a minute. Give
us some questions before it starts raining. You get that
car fixed so you're not underneath the hood getting all
wet and everything else. Been there, been there? Hey boy,
haven't we done that? So let's just talk a little
bit about carburetors. I used to have a guy that
(21:27):
I trained under that he used to smoke, and when
he would overhaul carburetor, he would always put his mouth
over top of the the idle circuit and he would
blow smoke through it, and then he would watch it
when he got done, and of course, you know, his
mouth is going to seal around that side of the carburetor,
and then he would blow backwards there and if he
(21:48):
could see smoke come out of there, he knew that
he had a clean port. If he didn't have a
clean port, then he would go through do that and
then he would check the other side. I mean, I
remember when we used to worked in California for a
many years and we used to have to overhaul carburetors
all the time. Then they had to pass smog tests
and blah blah blah blah blah. So there was a
(22:09):
lot of tricks of the trade that I learned, because
if you overhauled a carburetor and it wouldn't pass smog,
you really didn't do nothing. You had to go back
and you had to do it right, and you had
to unadjust it or adjust it or unadjusted or the
case maybe which is basically unadjusted basically means detune the
(22:30):
engine to the point and adjust the carburetors such as
it would pass. And then when it passed, you couldn't
fix anything because you would be undoing what you're doing.
But they could come back next week and say for
a tune up. It was such a crock I tell
you what. They'd come back and pay a whole totally
(22:53):
different deal. That's what they had to do in order
to pay for a tune up. And then you could
adjust it free will. Back to the actually making it
run right.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Carburetors were great because I mean if you actually understand
them and you know, then you could work with it. Yeah,
because it's all adjustable. I mean, you break down on
the side of the road, you can make a carburetor.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Run well, and it's all it's all adjusted and based
on the fact that the engine's pulling vacuum. And because
the engine is just a big air pump and it's
just pulling vacuum down the venturis then that's pulling fuel
from somewhere else. And if you open up the idle
circuit or the main circuit or your rods, you put
(23:33):
different rods in. Let's just say for a not a
quadri jet, but a thermo bog as we used to
call it thermal quad. Remember those plastic top, Yeah, plastic carburetor. Yeah,
that was probably the first step into what what are
we doing here? You could make those run richer or longer, rod,
you could snip off the end and make them richer.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
I mean, there was just all I've only worked on
one of those, and that carburetor got switched out for
an idlebrock. The guy seat of you overhauled it, and
I believe him, but he uh, when he tightened the
air cleaner down, he buried that nut all the way
home and warped the top of the body.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
So, I mean, I'm looking down here and it's just
pouring fuel.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
I've overhauled a bunch of those, and the only half
of them ever turned out, you know, right, And it's
not really the tech that's doing. You can only work
with what you can work with. You just really can't.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Hollis were versatile because they would all warp and you
had to file them all flat, and then you had.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
To Holly's were a nightmare. The Hollies were great.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Nobody'd ever tell you they backfired them.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Yeah, because as soon as you backfire one time on
a holly, you've blown the power valve. So you got
to pull it all part again. They're great for racers
because the racers can tune in.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Or not take that thing apart. Yeah, ding your float level. Yeah,
change your jets. That's what they were made for. It
was they were waded for you know, a quarter mile.
They were quick change. Yep, everything was quick. You didn't
even have to take it off the car. You could
take your bowls apart. They do all your work, throw
it back together.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
And that's that was the key to their success. For
that and still ten minutes.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
You got a tune up.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Yeah really yeah, you could change between rounds. You could
richen that up. Say I didn't run very good, put
yourself bigger jets in there. Run a little bit bigger,
and you didn't care about power owls because you had
them over there in a bucket.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
You know, just grab one that looked fresh.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
And you know, there's there's there's some other car. The
Weber was a Weber carburetor was a problem. They just
that was one that we had. The Dodge Omnih had
those Weber carburetors. On there, and they were absolute nightmares.
And the Weber is they weren't too bad when they
weren't electronic, and that is a universal carburetor. Yeah, well
(25:46):
they pay were on motorcycles, they were on boats. They
are a swap for any one barrel carburetor to make
a plate that you can screw on there and have
a two barrel Weber. And I did one on that
last Falcon. I had had a Weber carburetor two barrel
and I couldn't get the thing to run to save
my life. And finally I took the inlet off and
(26:07):
pulled the filter out of.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
There and then it ran. It had to have that
much flow.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
I've got one on my nash and it runs pretty good.
It's hard starting, you know, when it sits for a while,
but once I get past the choke problem, which I
don't really care nothing to them. I got to warm
it up anyway before I get in drive it, and
but other than that it works great.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
But yeah, I like the last guy I got was
saying my old truck had a Zenith carburetor on it
and it was a very unique carburetor. Like I've this
is the only one I've ever seen or been able
to find because it was a nineteen fifty three Zenith
one barrel with an automatic choke. So I had to
save this carburetor. So Buddy brought his stove bolt car
(26:49):
over that was running. And here I had this carburetor
that I just rebuilt, just did it. Wouldn't run, ky hell,
wouldn't run. Took it apart again, in soaked it again,
put it on and still wouldn't run. So same issue
like this guy was having. It wouldn't idle, pull it down,
get a piece of copper wire, some heavy copper wire.
(27:11):
I took a positive battery lead apart and you start
shipping it in there and here comes the crud. Then
it ran, well, you know, and something else. And I
already know this, but I was I just read it
in an article the other day. Is that And I
didn't realize that this particular had a problem in this
particular instance. But we all know what ethanol does to
(27:36):
carbreaders and what happens when you sit there. So NASCAR
was having a lot of problems with this. So what
they had figured out when they were when Eve ten
came along, they would run. Because NASCAR has adopted the
e ten E fifteen deal. This is what we're going
to do to be I don't know, conservationists, I guess
(27:57):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
I don't quite. That doesn't make sense, does it in
that in that particular sentence.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Yeah, five hundred horsepower and environmentally friendly really go in
the same sentence.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Open headers, exhaust blah blah blah blah blah blah. Anyway,
they would use one carburetor for one racetrack and then
they'd stick it on the shelf and then they wouldn't
use that again until they needed that pticure track came
back later in the year. And then they were finding
that once they took it off with fuel in the thing,
it would sit there the out the alcohol was rotten
(28:26):
out the inside. So how many times has that particular
car the e. Vince is working on maybe have alcohol
in it? Uh, maybe not with him, but maybe somebody else.
So what they decided to do is after they'd have
to drain it, every carburetor that come off after they
ran E fifteen, they would have to drain it, and
then they flushed it. They flushed every carburetor out with
(28:49):
premium fuel and then set it on the shelf and
then they were fine after that, So I mean, why
not just run premium fuel then you don't have to
worry about it. But that's the sponsor. E fifteen is
a sponsor, so you gotta I didn't know that they
were having a problem. We already knew that we had
that problem. And every small engine repair guy that's out
(29:12):
there listening, he already knew that we had a problem
with E fifteen. And letting it sit in your snowblower
slash whatever you have in your garages you only use
once in a while.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
For about the carberrators are aluminum, and they aluminum and fanol.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
And you can see that you can kind of see
like the water line or the crud line inside the
carburettor the high water mark. Yeah, we know a lot
about car ritors. Yeah, And I've said on this show,
I don't know how many times. The best I think,
the best time in my particular mechanical life is when
we got rid. It was a big deal when we
(29:48):
went over to Spark, but not as big a deal
as you would think, because the old Spark was was
pretty good, you know, and they still use that on
a lot of things, the points and condenser and stuff.
But the biggest thing was when we switched out of
carburetors and went to fuel injection, and it was.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
A learning curve. I mean, but back then everything happened slow.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
Nowadays, I mean every six months, the automotive world is
totally changing, totally one hundred and eighty degrees. I mean, well,
now your car start systems. I mean, we were moving
into electronic ignition in the early seventies, late sixties, and
you know, it was a very slow process. Then by
the eighties it was in everything. And I mean carburetors.
(30:30):
I mean they had their electronic days and then I
mean it took them forever two phase those out.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
I mean, and well it's because they had a Rochester contract,
somebody did.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
When I started in two thousand and two, there was
still a lot of carburetors around. I mean, it was
not an uncommon thing to get to work on one
every week.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
No, we're gonna talk carburetors more when we get back.
We're going five to five, eight, eleven, ten. We'll be
back in a minute. Oh, what's up today? I got
one of these?
Speaker 5 (30:56):
You do? Do you have a PO one two eight code?
Speaker 2 (31:00):
You know? The check engine lights never really come on
the other day, didn't even I think it burned out.
I just put it's the first set of spark plug wires.
It's plug plugs in at this thing. Just I don't
open the hood hardly at all on this car. Uh P,
what say again?
Speaker 5 (31:18):
Zero one two eight.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Zero one two eight. Let's let's plug it into our
magic machine because it can't remember all these things. I
tell you what.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
So it's a code for the coolant temperature sensor. Am
I right on that?
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Yeah? Yes, yes, so yeah, P one twenty eight, So
this is an five well P one Usually a P
one twenty eight nowadays has more to do with the
fact that your thermostat isn't opening and you need a
thermost stat because it's an electronic deal now in the
and the computer knows that you're not up to operating temperature.
(31:53):
And the best performance and best mileage is when the
car is actually up to operate temperature. So if this
is a one ninety five thermostat, for example, and it's
only reaching one seventy before it opens, the computer says,
that's not right. You're burning more fuel than you need
to the government says, I gotta, I gotta change it.
So that's kind of where you go with that.
Speaker 5 (32:15):
Yeah, okay, I inadvertently turned it off and it has
not come back on.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Well, I can tell you that when the weather changes,
that's when we see this code pop up. It does
in the fall and in the springtime we do thermostats
left right and center. Summertime and dead of winter not
so much, you.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Know, And we really haven't gone the technology for a thermostat.
Speaking of technology going better and worse, I mean we're.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
It hasn't changed.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
It hasn't changed at all. We're stealing dealing with a
spring and wax. So that's it. It's uh, it's pretty
much all that code goes for. So I would first
do before you pull the thermostat off of there, but
I would certainly do some visual inspections. Make sure you're
coolan full, make sure your cooling's full, make sure there's
not wire hasn't been chewed by something, you know, things
(33:06):
along that line. And A five this is the opportune
time to drop the coolant and put new in. And
if that's I can't remember off the top of my head,
is aft it in plastic housing? I can't is this
is this A four leader no, it's a three three leader,
but I can't you don't even see it.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
I can't place it.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
I can't place it right now. But if it's got
a plastic housing, put a new one on so you
don't do it twice.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
It'll be an easy fix for you out Yep, Sure.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
No problem, easy enough, thanks guys. You bet appreciate it.
Cal All right, we're gonn head over with John. John's
got an eighty three Buick Skylark. He wants uh carburetors.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
The carburetor conversation here, Yeah, what kind of carb you
got on there?
Speaker 8 (33:51):
Well, I'll tell you I don't have a carbery anymore.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
But there you go.
Speaker 8 (33:57):
I talk to you guys several times over you out
over this this engine.
Speaker 7 (34:01):
On this thing.
Speaker 8 (34:02):
But I finally got a runner right, thanks to you, guys,
and thank you a little bit of technology and sitting
back and thinking about things. But before I put this
motor in this thing, I had a two point eight
V six Chivvy motor in it, and I'm a Chivvy man.
But this thing was a Cluker junker engine, I'm telling you.
But it had an E two S Holly carburetor on
(34:26):
it with a fuel injector in the middle of it.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Yeah, I don't remember that one.
Speaker 8 (34:35):
It was a Hue injector, was one hundred dollars at
NAPA
Meet Bob. He's a four time tire rotation champion. When
he was a baby, his first words were automatic transmission fluid.
Bob's so cool he has engine coolant running through his veins.
And then there's Kyle, also as Premium unletted. Legend has
it that Kyle can change your oil with his toes,
(00:21):
and that he can tell your tires ille pressure just
by how you're walking. He's Bob, He's Kyle, and every
Saturday morning they morphed together to form the greatest superhero
known to man. Mister Mechanic check engine lights, don't stand
a chance. This is the Mister Mechanic Show on eleven ten, kfab.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Great Saturday morning to you. This is a Mister Mechanic show.
Five five, eight, eleven ten is the numbers to get in.
This is an interactive call in show. And you got
the questions, We'll give you some answers. Had you in
the right directions. And boy, that was a that was
a quick week, wasn't the Kyle? Yeah it's only seven days. Jeez,
here we are again.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I can say that if you own any type of
Chrysler where a three point six leader in it, odds
are that I've had my hands on it this week.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
They got problems.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
It's been a week as far as the three.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Six yep cam problems, phaser problems there, it's.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Been a week for christ I mean there is not
an automotive system that I have not repaired this week.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
On that. Yeah, because we had all sorts of minivans, cars, trucks.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
I did two sets of camshafts, some phasers, uh no
communication diagnostic on a van, and then today I just
finished up a heater box job on a jeep.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah. Yeah, the so there's a car we want you
to go get because it works good for us.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Oh, I'm great at them. I love them. Yeah, I
even bought one.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Every car's got it's uh, every car's got it's problematic things.
It doesn't matter what it is. Some cars are way
less than others, but.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
They all got something.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
They've all got something. They're they're they're complicated, they're they're
complicated machines. And now you almost need to be have
an electrical engineering degree to be able to uh probably
get involved with some of these electronic are not electronic,
but the the evs because everything is elect I mean,
you've got you've still got tires, And we still do
(02:35):
a lot of tires on on the EV just because
they are heavy and the tires that they put on
out of the factory are not as good as they
could be, and they're cambered in so bad in the
rear in order to have any kind of stability on
the thing, that they just wear tires out completely.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
It's really about it. I mean breaks. I mean you
don't you don't need breaks on an EV.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
No breaks, yeah, because as you put it in the
regeneration mode and you can take that in and out
if you want. Because drive on.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Why you would? I mean, well, that's a comfortable drive anyway,
it's a weird drive. Yeah. The first time you get
in there, I'm like, what.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
It's it's weird to be able to left off the
brake just before you think you're going to hit somebody
and it just goes wrong. But normally you'd be on
the brake way sooner than that in a normal car.
But in some cards you can take off that regeneration.
Therefore you use the brakes more. But I don't. I
don't think have you ever done instead of brakes on
an EB car? No?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
I have you know, because we do schooling for everything.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Been a part of that.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
And you know, the guy that did the class is
all evy and mainly he said, you do brakes because
they fall apart. You will get friction materials that literally
just come off the metal because they don't ever get used.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
They don't get touched right right, Well, they're all glued
on anyway. It was some amazing glue. I might add,
I don't know what that is, but I think that's
what holds the Space shuttle together or are in the rockets.
You know, why don't they use that glue to put
the tiles on the heat shield tiles on the outside
of the rockets that go into space.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Maybe they do. We don't know that for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Well they're coming off. You can see it on the
on the one of mus things. The other day some
of the tiles come off well and want to check
the yard. So clearly somebody's not using that break glue,
that's for sure. I'll tell you what. So you know,
I was going to touch on this real quick. You know,
(04:36):
some of these EV cars require home chargers and they
are going to there there just starting to talk about
legislation that you're not going to be able to if
you buy an EV just hook up your own charger.
You're gonna have to have an electrician come out, which
is a job. Do whatever you've got to do in
(04:56):
the house that you have, and this, that or the other.
New house is going to be easier than an old
house and you're gonna have to have all that stuff
hooked up. So it's gonna cost you an extra five
hundred to a grand fifteen hundred. That maybe a little light, Well,
it depends on what you're doing. I mean, just to
get a cable to the to the wall so that
you can plug yours in. Yes, it could go higher
(05:16):
than that, depending on where your meter socket's at and
just where your garage is located. Oh yeah, yeah, so
there's not it's just not gonna be an easy plug in.
You know, your shop light and off you go to
charge your car because.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
No fire safety sprinkler system.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Well that you know that's probably gonna come next. It
really is. Well why wouldn't you want to have one
of those in your garage if you've got something that
could potentially.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
I don't know if they put out an EV, but
it'll definitely slow it down. Yeah, yeah, no, enough to
get out of the house anyway, exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
And that's all you're looking for. All right, We're gonna
head over to Doug. Doug's got a twenty twelve Nissan pickup. Doug,
what's up today?
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Hi guys.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
I'm a previous caller. I was your vice. I'll got
two those twelve Nissa with thirty five k on it's
the Frontier and I have never done anything to the
radiator and all those you're mostly driven around town. Do
I need What do I need to do on the
radiator at this point in time? It's not get overheater
and that it's fine.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Yeah, yeah, that needs to be maintenanced. Generally, the rule
of thumb is every five years, five years or you know,
thirty thousands beyond that, but yeah, every five years. Just
get it out of there, That's what I do. I mean,
I don't drive a ton of miles anymore. I mean
I drive maybe four miles a day, But every five years,
(06:34):
you want to get that out of there because it
does corrode to a certain effect. And I mean just
to flush it out, pulls a bunch of stuff out,
put new fre new fresh ading freeze.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
The chemicals, the chemicals, the chemicals break down. Yeah, yeah,
you can, yeah, drop the lower hose right now. You
can certainly flush it out with the hose to get
some more out, but the chemicals kind of just break
down over a period of time. And really, Anna freeze
is twofold. First off, it's a rust inhibitor and that's
its that's its first job. And second job is to
(07:05):
keep the aner freeze so it doesn't freeze, or the
water so it doesn't freeze. But because if you put
straight water in there on a on a on a
cast iron block, it'll be mud within years. It'll just
be so rusty you can't get it out and be done.
So that's the reason that you're changing it.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
So do I need to use Proparetary, Nissan an freeze
or just any kind of good name brand Andrew's the.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Work correct good.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
There's a good Universal out there, import Universal anti freeze
and it's yellow. It'll mix with anything and you're going
to be a okay using that.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Okay, yep, no problem.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
One of the questions, the car has a currently a
warning sign for a tire sensor. I know which wheel
it is, but you know, check the pressure and I've
had the tire checks not tire. It's the censer. So
is how expensive and how difficult is to change the
tire sensor on the front wheel on a Nissan pickup
like that? You have to reprogram the center mm hmm,
(07:59):
yeah you do on that car.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah, okay, yeah, so you're.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
The center.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah, I mean we do them for parts and labor
and re you know, recalibration anything. You do it anywhere
from about one hundred one hundred and fifty bucks because
there's more into it. You got to have a machine
that we'll be able to recalibrate it, read it, install it,
and then test drive it, make sure the light goes out.
You know. Some summer easy let me tell you. Some
are super easy. Some of you just throw in and
(08:28):
drive and by the time you get out, you know,
turn the first corner, it's done. And other ones are
a large pain in the you know. So it all
depends on They're probably in the middle of the pain category.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
M nothing that can be done.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
Okay, that's why I need guys. Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
Appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
You bet appreciate the call. Yeah, isn't it. You know,
the early on of tire pressure sensors and trying to
get those to relearn.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Oh, it was a nightmare. Toyota was the absolute worst
you had. If you had to replace the sensor, you
had to go in there. You had to write every
digit of this fifteen digit code on the sensor though.
Yeah you know, I couldn't read in a magnifying glass
to read this number. And if you're off by one,
you're not getting that light up. Yeah, they were all
over again.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
And believe we're just talking about christ for products that
they are one of the easiest. Yeah, you just throw
it in go drive and it's done.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Yeah, there's nothing to it.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Tota was the worst. It's not anymore. They've they've since
solved that problem and now you know it can be
handled other than just but that was the early days
of that. But there's a guy that anymore. He took
a bunch of PVC pipes and put the sensors in
there and just filled them up with air and throw
it in the trunk of the car. That's it.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yeah, they aren't even in the wheel.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
It doesn't care. It just needs to know that it's
thirty five pounds.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Yeah, there's thirty five pounds in this PVC tube in
the back. And yeah, you can just got it in
the glove sensors in here, and two sensors in the
front of the car, and a PCV tube in the
glove box, and here you go, you tire light for me.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
He's a guy that has more time on his hands
and he just wants to see what he can do
to bypass something. Yeah, he's a pretty good plumb accomplished it. So, uh,
you don't want that thing to pop when you're airing
it up?
Speaker 3 (10:22):
All right?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Uh, answer one more? All right, we're gonna take a
quick break in the Mister Mechanic Show. We backed to
answer some more calls, five, five, eight, eleven, tens of
numbers to get in.
Speaker 6 (10:31):
How many questions about the Mister Mechanic show? Just ask Siri?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Hey, Siri, who is the real mister Mechanic?
Speaker 1 (10:39):
He's a god among men, a true mechanical genius, a
wrench in a box full of nuts?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Right, But like, who is he? Like, what's his name?
Speaker 3 (10:49):
He's a car whisperer, a true autopar Einstein, an automobile casanova.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah, I get all that. Like he's great with cars,
got it?
Speaker 1 (10:57):
But what's his real name?
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Oh it's Steve.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Oh makes sense.
Speaker 6 (11:04):
I have guard questions, then just ask Siri the mechanic
or better yet, call in to the mister mechanic shoe.
They gotta know what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Right now, we're gonna head over to Vince. Vince has
got a sixty four Impala. Vince, what's up today?
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Yes, I got a nineteen sixty four Impala.
Speaker 7 (11:21):
We just had it rebuilt and I got it home.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
And when you started, it starts just great.
Speaker 7 (11:30):
And then when you start driving it and stuff, then
you stop park it, then you get in and again
it's hard to start. And if I can get it going,
you know, then it'll run again.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
I have back pressure in the gas tank, so we
went with a vented one.
Speaker 7 (11:51):
And it's not venting it. I guess as much.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
But anyway, I didn't know if that was the problem
or what it is.
Speaker 7 (11:56):
But it's not running smooth when you run.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
When you drive, it d good and you can stop
stop science.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
So so tell me what hard start means? So are we.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
It's not it's not a car would.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Okay, okay, But a hard start to us means one
of five different things. So we're not cranking hard? Are
we cranking hard? Like we've got to? Well, y, yeah,
but that don't mean nothing. So uh yeah, is a
cranking hard because the engine is tight? And uh okay,
so are we cranking hard because we've got bad connections
(12:37):
aground and things like that. That's all doing great.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
So its healthy when it's cranking over Okay. As far
as compression motorise.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I've got to ask because we've seen the gamut of
this kind of problem. So so you're talking hard starting
like it's not getting any particular fuel up to the
from the gas tank up.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
It's turned since started and it then finally it kicked
in and then if you don't get on the gas right.
Speaker 7 (13:05):
Away, it just dies.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Mhmm.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Okay, after a couple of times like that, I can
get it going, baby, you know, pump the gas a
little when I get it started.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
What kind of carburetor you got on this car? Is
it the original?
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Got the original?
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Okay? So it's an old Rochester.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
I I didn't didn't look anyway, So well, guess where
I'm going to start at?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Here is I'm gonna get I'm gonna go to the
hardware hardware store or part store and get a little
carbretor cleaner. And then I already got that okay. So
if you shoot a little bit of carburetor cleaner in
it and crank the car, does it seem to fire
right off?
Speaker 5 (13:41):
No?
Speaker 4 (13:41):
I hadn't done that. I just the carburetor has all
been rebuilt. Everything's been rebuilt, car, the engine yep.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Still still don't care about that, Yep.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
I've had to go into a bunch of them twice exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
So if so, we're telling you what we would do.
So I'm going to spray a little bit of car
bread cleaner in there when you're having the problem. I'm
gonna shoot a little bit of carburetor cleaner in the
in the intake part of it, and then I'm gonna
go fire it off and see if it just fires
right off. If fire's right off, I know I got
a fuel problem. If it doesn't fire right off, I've
(14:14):
got something else going on, like a spark problem.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
I'm gonna bet that whoever did you rebuild this carburetor?
Speaker 4 (14:23):
No professional mechanic.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Okay, because old carburetors. Old carburetors are full of old sludge,
especially the idle circuit. So I mean, yeah, you can
soak them overnight. Great, that's awesome. We did everything by
the book and it's still bad. Took it all apart, Okay,
(14:46):
doesn't matter. Doesn't matter, because there's you can't take a
carburetor completely apart. I mean it's veined in there. You
have to go in there with a piece of hard
copper wire and go through all these time any tiny
passages and clean all that stuff out.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah, and this has nothing to do with the guy
that's overhauling the carburetor. I mean I've hold overhead carburetors
for forty years and Kyle has done it for thirty years.
So and I can tell you that sometimes like what
I've done is I've taken the old Rochester and I'd
just thrown it away and then I went out and bought
myself on a Carter or an Edelbrock as they call it.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Thefbes are the most reliable carburetors all I've ever worked.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Well, Yes, they do not have a problem all the
way around.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
If you want to afb carburetors, Carter Edelbrock style carburetors. Yes,
the Rochesters were great. They were I mean, they worked fine.
But I mean when you get old ones like this,
sometimes they just are not rebuildable.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
And the passages get narrow and they cause problems because
everything is on a air bleed or a Venturi style
section when it comes to pulling fuel into the carburetor,
and we're basee this on. It's a carburetor fuel issue.
If if you fire some carburetor cleaner in there and
(16:09):
it doesn't just fire right off, immediately run for a second, die,
then we know that we got a carburetor problem. So
what we'll do is shoot some in there and have
somebody crank it over, and we'll keep that carburetor stuff
on there, keep it running with it, keep it running
with it, so we know that the problem is there.
And then sometimes I have taken the fuel line completely off,
(16:29):
filled the choke bowl completely full carburetor cleaner, so it's
on a different fuel and see how it runs. But
it sounds like you're leaning towards a carburetor issue.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Yeah, it's the idle circuit is having an issue with
this car. Because clearly off idol we can run, Our
ventury is working, our float system is working. You're if
you're not flooding over your bowl, that all seems to
be working fine. It's a matter of why aren't we idling,
are we not? We're not carbo.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
It's just when I started.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Okay, well that's your item.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
After it's been running and I turned it off, then
I try and start it. Once I get it running again,
it runs through.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Okay. Is if the next question, is it flooding over?
Speaker 4 (17:16):
No, not that I can see. I mean it isn't.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Okay, Well, just because you can't see it flooding over
doesn't mean it's not vapor flooding over. And you're if
vapor floods over, then you're sending uh, you're sending vapors into.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
THEREND is just overwhelming your air cleaner box with vapor
and yep, the same as like a perg so annoyed
on a modern car. But I'm leaning towards a carburetor issue.
And like I say, just because it's rebuilt, I've had
to go through a lot of them more than once.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
It's just part of the game.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
And I mean, we've got a sixty year old car
here that has sixty year old parts on it. We
rebuild them.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
And yeah, you know, yeah, just yeah, everything everything's original.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Save yourself, Yeah, save yourself some time and money and effort,
and you can get you can get him from o' riilly's.
Are about four hundred and fifty bucks to buy and everything.
You got to buy a couple other kids to hook
the the the UH.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Tables, maybe a spacer plate for the intake. But yep,
it's going to be cheap and you're gonna have a
turnkey car when you're done.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
In fact, I just got I just got done doing
one of these. What but two months ago the guy,
the the shipper would not ship it until he could
make the thing run, and he wanted me to overhaul
the carburetor, and I told him I wouldn't do it.
I said, if you want it fixed, you want it
fixed right. Because he was moving to Washington. I said,
I'll fix this up so it absolutely has no issue.
Then when you get done and pull it off the
(18:49):
truck in Washington, you'll have a car you can drive.
He says, well, i'd like that because it hasn't run
right in years. So that's what I did for him,
And I just heard back from him. Oh a bottom, Yeah,
about a month ago. He says, everything's growing beautiful. So yeah,
all right, I hate to tell you that, Vince, but
I think that's the path you're going.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
What about the what about the backup pressure and the
gas tank? Is that any concern?
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Well, you don't really have that. Uh, you've got a
vented gas cap for the most part. You should have
a vented gas cap.
Speaker 7 (19:24):
I do.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
When I take to take it loose, it goes.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Well, that's pressure, and pressure is going to push fuel
down the line to your pump. So I don't know
that I'm necessarily terribly concerned with that right now. Look
at the vent system for that tank, because I'm not
one hundred percent sure on a Chevy how how they vent.
(19:50):
But I know on my car, my sixty two forward,
the vent tube goes up and across a pipe to
the back of the trunk and down to the wheel
well where it vents. So is that tube clear as
a spider got in there and made a nest to
where we can't vent vapor. I mean, it should just
be a free flowing, no pressure involved tank.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
But if there's fuel in the float bowl when you
shut it off, there's still fuel in the football a
float bowl that should be able to start back right up. Yeah,
regardless of what if you've got the gas once, if
you've got zero in the tank and the float bowls full.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
You're running, you're running.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
You should shut it off and be able to start
it back up. I don't care what's what's in the tank.
It's you know, isn't a problem. You're your needle and
seat is going to stop that? Yeah, for the for the.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Yeah, I don't think that this is your problem. But
I would definitely look at the vent side of that
gas tank and see how that's working.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
I can't tell you how many cars in the past
that we've dropped gas tanks out in order to move
them around. We'll fill the float bowl full of carburetor
stuff and lot drive it. There's no gas, I think,
can it? Yeah, we've been there, done that.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Yeah, try it, Vince, get a look at the Vench
system on that tank. You'll be good.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
All right, all right, we're gonna take a quick break
of the miss Mechanics show. Five, five, eight, eleven, tens
numbers to get in. Be back in a minute. Give
us some questions before it starts raining. You get that
car fixed so you're not underneath the hood getting all
wet and everything else. Been there, been there? Hey boy,
haven't we done that? So let's just talk a little
bit about carburetors. I used to have a guy that
(21:27):
I trained under that he used to smoke, and when
he would overhaul carburetor, he would always put his mouth
over top of the the idle circuit and he would
blow smoke through it, and then he would watch it
when he got done, and of course, you know, his
mouth is going to seal around that side of the carburetor,
and then he would blow backwards there and if he
(21:48):
could see smoke come out of there, he knew that
he had a clean port. If he didn't have a
clean port, then he would go through do that and
then he would check the other side. I mean, I
remember when we used to worked in California for a
many years and we used to have to overhaul carburetors
all the time. Then they had to pass smog tests
and blah blah blah blah blah. So there was a
(22:09):
lot of tricks of the trade that I learned, because
if you overhauled a carburetor and it wouldn't pass smog,
you really didn't do nothing. You had to go back
and you had to do it right, and you had
to unadjust it or adjust it or unadjusted or the
case maybe which is basically unadjusted basically means detune the
(22:30):
engine to the point and adjust the carburetors such as
it would pass. And then when it passed, you couldn't
fix anything because you would be undoing what you're doing.
But they could come back next week and say for
a tune up. It was such a crock I tell
you what. They'd come back and pay a whole totally
(22:53):
different deal. That's what they had to do in order
to pay for a tune up. And then you could
adjust it free will. Back to the actually making it
run right.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Carburetors were great because I mean if you actually understand
them and you know, then you could work with it. Yeah,
because it's all adjustable. I mean, you break down on
the side of the road, you can make a carburetor.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Run well, and it's all it's all adjusted and based
on the fact that the engine's pulling vacuum. And because
the engine is just a big air pump and it's
just pulling vacuum down the venturis then that's pulling fuel
from somewhere else. And if you open up the idle
circuit or the main circuit or your rods, you put
(23:33):
different rods in. Let's just say for a not a
quadri jet, but a thermo bog as we used to
call it thermal quad. Remember those plastic top, Yeah, plastic carburetor. Yeah,
that was probably the first step into what what are
we doing here? You could make those run richer or longer, rod,
you could snip off the end and make them richer.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
I mean, there was just all I've only worked on
one of those, and that carburetor got switched out for
an idlebrock. The guy seat of you overhauled it, and
I believe him, but he uh, when he tightened the
air cleaner down, he buried that nut all the way
home and warped the top of the body.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
So, I mean, I'm looking down here and it's just
pouring fuel.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
I've overhauled a bunch of those, and the only half
of them ever turned out, you know, right, And it's
not really the tech that's doing. You can only work
with what you can work with. You just really can't.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Hollis were versatile because they would all warp and you
had to file them all flat, and then you had.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
To Holly's were a nightmare. The Hollies were great.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Nobody'd ever tell you they backfired them.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Yeah, because as soon as you backfire one time on
a holly, you've blown the power valve. So you got
to pull it all part again. They're great for racers
because the racers can tune in.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Or not take that thing apart. Yeah, ding your float level. Yeah,
change your jets. That's what they were made for. It
was they were waded for you know, a quarter mile.
They were quick change. Yep, everything was quick. You didn't
even have to take it off the car. You could
take your bowls apart. They do all your work, throw
it back together.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
And that's that was the key to their success. For
that and still ten minutes.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
You got a tune up.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Yeah really yeah, you could change between rounds. You could
richen that up. Say I didn't run very good, put
yourself bigger jets in there. Run a little bit bigger,
and you didn't care about power owls because you had
them over there in a bucket.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
You know, just grab one that looked fresh.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
And you know, there's there's there's some other car. The
Weber was a Weber carburetor was a problem. They just
that was one that we had. The Dodge Omnih had
those Weber carburetors. On there, and they were absolute nightmares.
And the Weber is they weren't too bad when they
weren't electronic, and that is a universal carburetor. Yeah, well
(25:46):
they pay were on motorcycles, they were on boats. They
are a swap for any one barrel carburetor to make
a plate that you can screw on there and have
a two barrel Weber. And I did one on that
last Falcon. I had had a Weber carburetor two barrel
and I couldn't get the thing to run to save
my life. And finally I took the inlet off and
(26:07):
pulled the filter out of.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
There and then it ran. It had to have that
much flow.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
I've got one on my nash and it runs pretty good.
It's hard starting, you know, when it sits for a while,
but once I get past the choke problem, which I
don't really care nothing to them. I got to warm
it up anyway before I get in drive it, and
but other than that it works great.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
But yeah, I like the last guy I got was
saying my old truck had a Zenith carburetor on it
and it was a very unique carburetor. Like I've this
is the only one I've ever seen or been able
to find because it was a nineteen fifty three Zenith
one barrel with an automatic choke. So I had to
save this carburetor. So Buddy brought his stove bolt car
(26:49):
over that was running. And here I had this carburetor
that I just rebuilt, just did it. Wouldn't run, ky hell,
wouldn't run. Took it apart again, in soaked it again,
put it on and still wouldn't run. So same issue
like this guy was having. It wouldn't idle, pull it down,
get a piece of copper wire, some heavy copper wire.
(27:11):
I took a positive battery lead apart and you start
shipping it in there and here comes the crud. Then
it ran, well, you know, and something else. And I
already know this, but I was I just read it
in an article the other day. Is that And I
didn't realize that this particular had a problem in this
particular instance. But we all know what ethanol does to
(27:36):
carbreaders and what happens when you sit there. So NASCAR
was having a lot of problems with this. So what
they had figured out when they were when Eve ten
came along, they would run. Because NASCAR has adopted the
e ten E fifteen deal. This is what we're going
to do to be I don't know, conservationists, I guess
(27:57):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
I don't quite. That doesn't make sense, does it in
that in that particular sentence.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Yeah, five hundred horsepower and environmentally friendly really go in
the same sentence.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Open headers, exhaust blah blah blah blah blah blah. Anyway,
they would use one carburetor for one racetrack and then
they'd stick it on the shelf and then they wouldn't
use that again until they needed that pticure track came
back later in the year. And then they were finding
that once they took it off with fuel in the thing,
it would sit there the out the alcohol was rotten
(28:26):
out the inside. So how many times has that particular
car the e. Vince is working on maybe have alcohol
in it? Uh, maybe not with him, but maybe somebody else.
So what they decided to do is after they'd have
to drain it, every carburetor that come off after they
ran E fifteen, they would have to drain it, and
then they flushed it. They flushed every carburetor out with
(28:49):
premium fuel and then set it on the shelf and
then they were fine after that, So I mean, why
not just run premium fuel then you don't have to
worry about it. But that's the sponsor. E fifteen is
a sponsor, so you gotta I didn't know that they
were having a problem. We already knew that we had
that problem. And every small engine repair guy that's out
(29:12):
there listening, he already knew that we had a problem
with E fifteen. And letting it sit in your snowblower
slash whatever you have in your garages you only use
once in a while.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
For about the carberrators are aluminum, and they aluminum and fanol.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
And you can see that you can kind of see
like the water line or the crud line inside the
carburettor the high water mark. Yeah, we know a lot
about car ritors. Yeah, And I've said on this show,
I don't know how many times. The best I think,
the best time in my particular mechanical life is when
we got rid. It was a big deal when we
(29:48):
went over to Spark, but not as big a deal
as you would think, because the old Spark was was
pretty good, you know, and they still use that on
a lot of things, the points and condenser and stuff.
But the biggest thing was when we switched out of
carburetors and went to fuel injection, and it was.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
A learning curve. I mean, but back then everything happened slow.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
Nowadays, I mean every six months, the automotive world is
totally changing, totally one hundred and eighty degrees. I mean, well,
now your car start systems. I mean, we were moving
into electronic ignition in the early seventies, late sixties, and
you know, it was a very slow process. Then by
the eighties it was in everything. And I mean carburetors.
(30:30):
I mean they had their electronic days and then I
mean it took them forever two phase those out.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
I mean, and well it's because they had a Rochester contract,
somebody did.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
When I started in two thousand and two, there was
still a lot of carburetors around. I mean, it was
not an uncommon thing to get to work on one
every week.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
No, we're gonna talk carburetors more when we get back.
We're going five to five, eight, eleven, ten. We'll be
back in a minute. Oh, what's up today? I got
one of these?
Speaker 5 (30:56):
You do? Do you have a PO one two eight code?
Speaker 2 (31:00):
You know? The check engine lights never really come on
the other day, didn't even I think it burned out.
I just put it's the first set of spark plug wires.
It's plug plugs in at this thing. Just I don't
open the hood hardly at all on this car. Uh P,
what say again?
Speaker 5 (31:18):
Zero one two eight.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Zero one two eight. Let's let's plug it into our
magic machine because it can't remember all these things. I
tell you what.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
So it's a code for the coolant temperature sensor. Am
I right on that?
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Yeah? Yes, yes, so yeah, P one twenty eight, So
this is an five well P one Usually a P
one twenty eight nowadays has more to do with the
fact that your thermostat isn't opening and you need a
thermost stat because it's an electronic deal now in the
and the computer knows that you're not up to operating temperature.
(31:53):
And the best performance and best mileage is when the
car is actually up to operate temperature. So if this
is a one ninety five thermostat, for example, and it's
only reaching one seventy before it opens, the computer says,
that's not right. You're burning more fuel than you need
to the government says, I gotta, I gotta change it.
So that's kind of where you go with that.
Speaker 5 (32:15):
Yeah, okay, I inadvertently turned it off and it has
not come back on.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Well, I can tell you that when the weather changes,
that's when we see this code pop up. It does
in the fall and in the springtime we do thermostats
left right and center. Summertime and dead of winter not
so much, you.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Know, And we really haven't gone the technology for a thermostat.
Speaking of technology going better and worse, I mean we're.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
It hasn't changed.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
It hasn't changed at all. We're stealing dealing with a
spring and wax. So that's it. It's uh, it's pretty
much all that code goes for. So I would first
do before you pull the thermostat off of there, but
I would certainly do some visual inspections. Make sure you're
coolan full, make sure your cooling's full, make sure there's
not wire hasn't been chewed by something, you know, things
(33:06):
along that line. And A five this is the opportune
time to drop the coolant and put new in. And
if that's I can't remember off the top of my head,
is aft it in plastic housing? I can't is this
is this A four leader no, it's a three three leader,
but I can't you don't even see it.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
I can't place it.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
I can't place it right now. But if it's got
a plastic housing, put a new one on so you
don't do it twice.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
It'll be an easy fix for you out Yep, Sure.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
No problem, easy enough, thanks guys. You bet appreciate it.
Cal All right, we're gonn head over with John. John's
got an eighty three Buick Skylark. He wants uh carburetors.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
The carburetor conversation here, Yeah, what kind of carb you
got on there?
Speaker 8 (33:51):
Well, I'll tell you I don't have a carbery anymore.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
But there you go.
Speaker 8 (33:57):
I talk to you guys several times over you out
over this this engine.
Speaker 7 (34:01):
On this thing.
Speaker 8 (34:02):
But I finally got a runner right, thanks to you, guys,
and thank you a little bit of technology and sitting
back and thinking about things. But before I put this
motor in this thing, I had a two point eight
V six Chivvy motor in it, and I'm a Chivvy man.
But this thing was a Cluker junker engine, I'm telling you.
But it had an E two S Holly carburetor on
(34:26):
it with a fuel injector in the middle of it.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Yeah, I don't remember that one.
Speaker 8 (34:35):
It was a Hue injector, was one hundred dollars at
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