Help w/ Holley- stuck at work!

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matthon

matthon

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Hey, I have 2 390 Holleys on a tunnel ram, everything is new and has worked w/o any issues. Today, it sputtered and died on the way to work, but I made it by keeping the rpms up at stop lights, as it wanted to stall and was running rough.

The front carb saturated the carb gasket and was leaking gas out.
I thought the choke was stuck or something, it was not. Next I checked the idle air bleeds to see if they were clogged, nothing visible, and no other option, I took some of that dust off stuff and blew out the idle and high speed.

Cleaned off the gas, let is sit in the sun to evaporate any excess, set the chokes, (electric), and it started fine, then idled down and sputtered, leaked gas again, and died.

Is there anyone out there who can provide any insight so I can drive home?
 

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Were is it leaking? have you check to see if float is sticking,check and pull the needle, good luck.
 
That carb needs the float needle rinsed out.
Should only take about 5 min.

You could try stopping the fuel to the carbs and let it run low on gas then let the gas flow.
Sometimes this will clear it.
 
Sounds like flooding as above. If the attempts to easily clear the needle do not work:
- Take out the sight plug on the side of the bowl to verify flooding. If it is flooding, then fuel will pour out of the hole so be careful!
- Remove the front fuel bowl and remove the needle valve and seat and clean. Then do the same for the back bowl. Be careful when re-assembling the bowl connecting tube with the small O-rings; a bit of Vaseline will make them slip in more easily without damage.

And, don't forget to check your newspaper box to see if it stuffed full of papers....
 
Stopped flow of gas to carbs, kept the throttle going to empty them, restarted, ran fine for short time, flooded again. Repeated 2 more times, same result.

Unable to stop gas flow to 1 carb, here at work, at this moment.

Appears to be leaking just above butterflies, was coming out one side, now just coming out the other side.

This carb has a float needle on either side, on top, correct?
Just pull them out and clean?
I've got plyers and screw drivers, nothing else.
 
TrailBeast said:
That carb needs the float needle rinsed out.
Should only take about 5 min.

You could try stopping the fuel to the carbs and let it run low on gas then let the gas flow.
Sometimes this will clear it.
Click to expand...

X4
Totally sounds like the float needle. Won't take long to clean it out.

Airisol brake parts cleaner works well. I always carry some as it's part of the redneck toolkit.
 
matthon said:
Stopped flow of gas to carbs, kept the throttle going to empty them, restarted, ran fine for short time, flooded again. Repeated 2 more times, same result.

Unable to stop gas flow to 1 carb, here at work, at this moment.

Appears to be leaking just above butterflies, was coming out one side, now just coming out the other side.

This carb has a float needle on either side, on top, correct?
Just pull them out and clean?
I've got plyers and screw drivers, nothing else.[/quot

Deleted
Click to expand...
 
Yes there are needles for the front and rear bowls . You CAN get them off by removing the large top screws on each bowl. Keep track of how many turn s it takes to get the large nut off so that your flaot adjustment wil be close when you re-assemble them.

I generally remove the bowls anyway to check to see if a float has leaked or if the tang or hinge on the float has broken.
 
Do yourself a favor put toolsssssssssss in the trunk,if it keeps flooding after several a temps with the needle time to look at the tank could be full of dirt ask me know i know.
 
Took out the sight plugs, rear leaked gas.
Removed that needle, marked the screw/nut/seat with a marker first.
Took the dust off and cleaned the needle, although nothing noticable to the naked eye.
Put it back together, started, ran fine, left the sight plug out, no flooding.

Simple- lucky I had the plyers and screwdriver because no one at work gets their hands dirty.

Easy. Thank you for the refresher course- going home!
 
Most of the time you can't see the dirt. Only takes a tiny piece of crap in there to cause that.
 
I had a demon that did that every 3rd start. The o ring boss wasnt drilled clean and it sheared the o ring every time i would check/replace it. What a joke.
 
Now that you got it fixed dump some gumout in the tank every once in awhile to keep it from happening again.
 
TrailBeast said:
That carb needs the float needle rinsed out.
Should only take about 5 min.

You could try stopping the fuel to the carbs and let it run low on gas then let the gas flow.
Sometimes this will clear it.
Click to expand...

Have done the very same thing on my chopper....shut the fuel off when it starts to sputter down it back on...
 
Did you charge them for the overtime that it took for you to fix your car after work???
 
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