Many have read my post RE: Bloody oil leak. As I have been trying to get my rebuilt 250 ready for a 1400 miles week long trip with friends, I've run into some issues that have been interesting.
1, no matter how closely I paid attention to the cleaning and adjusting of one of the simplest carbs in the world, my Rochester BV wouldn't run right afterwords. WRONG manifold to carb gasket....you must have the one with the little cutouts.
2, excessive fuel pressure will cause what you believe to be a carb problem and you spend hours pulling pieces of the float system apart without resolve. My NEW carter pump pegged my 7 PSI fuel pressure gauge at idle.
3, Upon 1st drive with the new 250, I heard what I perceived to be a dry speedo cable. That night I pulled the cable and lubed it. The next drive the speedo quit. Months ago I had replaced my Saginaw 3sp with one with BW overdrive. I pulled the speedo gear from my old trans and in installed it in the OD, thinking that it should be right with my rear gear. Well, Guys, it appears that a very simple look at the two gears side by side would have shown me that the BW gear was nearly a 1/16th" larger in diameter, and the Chevy gear rode on the tops until that day it quit.
4, "One half of all carburator problems are in the ignition system." During my bout with the carb, an intermidant miss and surging would show at about 45mph in OD. I played with float level without resolve. Tired of playing with the carb I decided to put on the new plug wires I bought. Guess what went away?
5. The alternator also took a dump during this last two weeks. Replaced it and the new one went 2 days. Long story short, the regulater had a short that wouldn't show until the engine was revved up.
Am looking forward to my trip. Still leaking oil but it looks worse than it is, a pint in 400 miles, lord a pint will go a long way on well finished concrete. I want to thank everyone for the comments on the oil leak.
Mike Mantle
