Ed's Carburetor Forum. Carbs rule!!!!: What is your best carburetor story?.....

A long long time ago, I used to be a hotline mechanic for a rental truck outfit (will remain nameless but they were all older fords...) basically fixing these old rental trucks whenever and where-ever they broke down from way up into canada down to oregon from the pacific ocean up through the cascades.
Got called out on a call for an F-350 16 foot truck that wouldn't start (common problem). Called the customer who said it had run the night before, got in today and tried to start it, it just turned over and over and wouldn't start and the battery was now dead and it smelled (badly)of gas. Customer thought he had flooded it. But again now the battery was dead requiring me to go out to them.

I got there (they were only about 25 minutes away) and sure enough I could still smell and SEE the gas and yes the battery was indeed dead. So I got about 4-6 20X20 red shop rags that I carried with me and started soaking up the gas on the intake and along side the carburetor (the big pools in the 390 intake wells). Got them soaked up and placed the rags on a area right next to me. Installed a new battery in this case, since the old battery was ready for replacement anyway, rather than jump starting it.

I was concerned about the fuel so I removed the coil wire and had the customer crank over the engine. Cranked over fine with the new battery but sure enough fuel was coming out of the 2100 carburetor vent holes and going everywhere. Took off the top of the carb and replaced the needle and seat, they were bad and figured everything was good. Got it all back together and re-soaked up the new fuel using the same rags. Put the coil wire on and had the customer crank it.

No sooner had they done that, then the engine backfired and I had him stop. Now I realized we had a bit bigger problem. Somehow while trying to get it started they had gotten the distributor or more than likely the timing gear to jump a tooth or two, a pretty common problem with these older rental trucks. So I pulled number 1 plug, found TDC and removed the distributor one tooth over. Problem solved.

Now while all this was happening, I had a bit of an audience, this guy had about 20 people over helping him move and I had about 3-4 of the lazy ones or a rotation watching me work on all this.

Put the coil wire on and had the him turn it over, This time I must have gone an extra tooth or not enough because again the engine backfired and because he was pumping the accelerator I got a bit of a carburetor fire.

Now if anyone has ever had a carburetor fire ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS TURN THE ENGINE OVER AGAIN AND IT DRAWS IT RIGHT BACK INTO THE CARB AND INTAKE AND SMOTHERS IT. But before I could get him to turn the engine over one of my spectators decides a fire, even a little carburetor fire IS A SIGNIFICANT EVENT and he is going to help me put it out, USING THE CLOSEST THING AVAILABLE,

SOME RAGS.............

SOME GASOLINE SOAKED RAGS.................

NOW THE WHOLE ENGINE COMPARTMENT IS A BLAZING INFERNO, MY WOULD BE "HELPER" IS ALSO ON FIRE ALONG WITH A SIGNIFICANT PILE OF RAGS WHICH HE THREW AMONG SOME CARDBOARD MOVING BOXES NEXT TO THE TRUCK. I AM ON THE GROUND BLOWN BACK FROM THE BIG SWOOOSHHHHH OF RAGS, ENGINE COMPARTMENT, AND WOULD BE HELPER MASS IGNITING.

Fortunatley the story does end happily, I had two halon estinguishers on my repair rig, which I quickly got and which made quick work of the truck and the cardboard boxes, and the helper who was also smart enough to drop and roll and was wearing a long sleeve shirt.

The end result was that the customer moving had some stuff slightly burned in the boxes which were destined for goodwill anyway, The would be assistant had a bit shorter eyebrows and a ruined charred shirt and smelled like he was in a fire, he felt really, really sorry and definetely felt like an idiot, and his friends were enjoying giving him a bad time for as long as I was there.
I had to tow the truck since the halon had gotten in the intake, which meant them unloading and me waiting around for another truck from my assistant. It was going to have to have the engine replaced anyway so it worked out best. My boss wasn't to happy about a downed truck and doubted my story but when the customer returned the new truck not only did he vouch for me but he and his friends also turned me in for an accomodation for service, from my company, which I recieved a very nice bonus and an award, and the "helper" turned out to be a manager of a local car stereo place and gave me a 500.00 store coupon.

BUT I NO LONGER ALLOW ANYONE ALONGSIDE OR IN FRONT OF A VEHICLE I AM WORKING ON SINCE THEN.

Bill White
White Automotive

What is your best carburetor story?.....

HAHA Great question Ed.... I will take a different approach...