My first Carb Rebuild.
My first ever rebuild was to be on my LTD's mc2150 2bbl carb.
I was hoping for it to be a nice day all by myself, just me, the carb, and the cleaning spray.
Before I could pull the first vacuum line, my cousin comes over (he's the "mechanical" one in the family, who also has lived a life with never being told "no" by his family) So he comes over and takes over the process, rebuilds the carb in a flash (it's one thing to 'just' replace gaskets, it's another to take some time to actually _clean_ things out). A few errors he made; (I, being the 'new' mechanic who has no experience can't really persaude him he's wrong)
He never checked the float.
Put on the wrong gasket for the lower body to air horn.
Ok, so he bolts the thing back onto my engine and starts turning it over, fuel is spewing out between the gasket; He stops turning it over, takes the gasket out completely and continues to turn the engine over. More and more fuel is spewing out of this carb;
I yell at him to stop! but he's still turning it over. Then, boof! we have a nice little fire inside the barrels; thinking to myself "bah, i've read about this happening before" I told him to stop pumping the pedal and to just turn it over (to suck the fire down) he instead jumps out of the car and BLOWS on the friggen fire. Like the boyscout trick works, the fire soon got bigger, leaped out of the carb and caught the fumes and fuel that sprayed out between the gasket. So, the whole damned carb was engulfed in flames; he's trying to smother the fire with a towel and I'm running to get water because I have no extinguisher and the carb was beyond 'smothering' with a towel (btw, I'm kinda heavy set and my mom saw me running to get water, and she was like 'WOW... I never knew you could RUN so fast!!!" lol ) So I return with water and the fire has gone out, my cousin dumped my MOUNTAIN DEW on the fire. It was a full can of regular, super sugary dew
So, with enough action for one night I cleaned up the tools and garbage, closed the lid of the trunk and said goodnight to my cousin and walked into the house. About 30 mins later I realized "... I should be dead I think... " (because the fuel line/filter was engulfed in flames)
He then lied to my dad and said it was a plume of smoke; and made a joke out of it. I thought otherwise and this was the last straw for me (refer to end if this doesn't make sense)
Bright and early I woke up and assessed the damage; when sugary substances dry they form a clear sticky enamel type thing; and it was spattered all over the engine compartment. Mtn Dew & fuel/water mix lied in the crevaces of the intake manifold and on spots of the carb. So I sighed to myself; removed the carb and peered into the intake manifold. It was drenched with prolly half an inch of fuel just sitting on the bottom.
So today I spent most of my time alone in the basement rebuilding the carb like it SHOULD have been done in the first place. I got the damned thing so clean, I felt like the guy on Full Metal Jacket, talking to his rifle.
So; I decided to put it to the test and bolted that new baby on; Had dad fire it up, and it started right up!
The MORAL/POINT OF THE STORY:
I've always doubted my abilities as a mechanic/car person. I've always been a computer nut/geek. I never had room to grow with my first car because my cousin monopolized anything I wanted to do with it. He's a rather manipulative person. Kinda rude and you better have a real good excuse to tell him why you dont want to do something with/for him. Today I managed to tell him to let me be (in a more 'subtle' manner that is).
My first rebuild, fired right up, like a beauty! (tad rich I reckon). And I've gained lotsa confidence from this. (yea, ok laught at me because it's "just" a 2bbl :( )
All due to semi fouled plugs and 2 leads being on the incorrect plugs on a mates coupe. The singed hair smell isn't nice. By the way the fireball was so big it didn't matter if you kept to a safe distance. I kept away and still got done!
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