Found frayed pickup wires in the distributor so I started there but no difference. It had the ADHA carb, so I figured rather than even invest in a kit for it, given its reputation, I'd start w/ just replacing it. So one DFEV/1800 intake and fuel pump later it ran like a champ at low speeds but still undriveable if I tried to take it on the highway. Yesterday I finally rigged up a fuel pressure gauge to the wiper and found it drops to 0 when the bucking started.
At first I thought it was that the rubber lines the PO had shoved through the existing hard-line holes were restricting flow over time, but that was not the case after pulling them out and comparing flow before and after. Then I pulled my sender out of the tank and found SO much sediment at the bottom it isn't funny. The metal pickup tube had about 1" of the fuzziest rust all around it and the plastic screen at the bottom was a solid mass, maybe a few pinholes still open. I'm really not sure how it was even pulling any fuel to idle and drive around town but it sure did. Upstream filter and carb screen were always spotless too.
Anyways, in the course of my adventure, I really thought I had nailed the problem when I found the PO had mounted the timing mark upside down at some point vs. a picture I found here, as well as my FSM, which I thought just had an incorrect/generic photo. So yeah, the design of the cover and mark will let you do that, and it totally doesn't appear to be wrong to the casual eye. Timing will be off 10 degrees at the crank with it flipped and timed to the incorrect 10BTC mark.
I did get lucky though - this was apparently done after the last timing belt change because it lines up perfectly now.So I have about 5-6 gallons of gas I need to try to burn before I pull the tank and see if I can salvage it without buying a new one from AR, as tempting as that is having come this far. But if I do that I can't replace my front control arms until probably this fall, and I have one really bad ball joint.
What kind of success do you think I would have just pulling the in-tank strainer off and putting a filter (or two) before the pump just long enough to drive off some of the gas? I figure worst case scenario I may be changing filters, fry a pump (I still have the old one so I consider it expendible at this point), or maybe have to blow out some jets in the carb later on?
