1971 Volvo 164

Put the new sparkplug wires I got from NAPA on the other night.  Autozone and Advance didn’t have them and I tried Napa as a fallback – but not only did they have the right ones but I spent half an hour talking with the guy at the counter about them.  He picked out some plugs which he said should work and I declined because I’d already bought plugs at Autozone.  Hopefully they’re the right ones but who knows.

Got out to the car after work and had some nice cool weather to work in.  Munched on some grapes that mom sent me out there with while I set the gap on the plugs and put the wires on.  Tried to start it – no dice.  Pulled out one of the plugs and felt/smelled it for gas.  It was dry.  Checked the damping pistons on the carburetors and they were wet with gas.  Fuel is getting to the carburetors (both of them) but not getting to the cylinders.  I checked the throttle plate and it moves with the linkage – no issue there.  Something in there is causing the fuel not to get to the engine.

Stuck, I decided to at least change the oil.  But the tires need some air – and the car was so low to the ground I couldn’t fit the used oil container underneath.  Oh well.  Another day.

In the meantime I am pouring over the diagram of these Zenith Stromberg 175CD2SE carburetors in the Chilton book.  I watched some youtube links of taking apart a slightly different model Stromberg carb from an MG.  It’s pretty insane what this guy does in 25minutes.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=L5GveCj3Hck
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QTFbwcxc5eI
http://youtube.com/watch?v=CZ1nr1WroRs

 I still haven’t decided if I’m going to undertake rebuilding the carburetors myself.  I am pretty confident in my ability to keep the parts organized and my thoughts clear.  Plus I’m not in a huge rush, I’d just like to get it on the road and if possible save myself $500.  As Jim says, if you fuck up – at least you still have one for reference!  I did call Edgecombs (our local Volvo dealer in Charlottesville) and they don’t rebuild carburetors.  It’s actually sort of up in the air whether they will work on 164s at all.  I guess it’s good that I’m learning so much about this car.