alright, bought a purolator pump. gets fule to the carb. i know because of the glass fuel filter. it will start after sitting for a minute idle for a few secs with the choke in, and then die. the damn carb must be gummed up. if you choke it, it will idle too high and outrun the fuel getting through. so my question is, can i squirt carb cleaner into the in lines on the carb and not blow anything up. not with it running but after i take of the top runners and clean them separately. hell, give me some ideas to do. i really don't want to tear down the carb. i thought about pulling it off and soaking the whole thing in carb cleaner. dammit this sucks.

 

anybody?

 

ok, you have replaced the rusted tank and got another fuel pump, now where do you think all the crud from those parts ended up? I had the exact same problem with my rusted tank, the rust particles are so small that they can and did make it to the carb. remove the fuel rail and clean the two metal mesh screens, remove the top of the carb and you will see lots of small openings that can be sprayed with carb spray (be carefull cause some have small ***** in them, might pour some cleaner in those holes) check the needle and seat for gunk, (no need to remove carb to do this, but as a last resort you might have to) ,replace accelerator pump if its torn or has dry rotted (use a small magnet to help with removing the screws so they dont fall into a place you cant retreive them from) go to library and check out a repair manual if you dont have one. Man i know that you are getting fustraited, but be patient and all your hard work will pay off when it starts up the first time.........good luck

 

i'm afraid of carbs. i can screw them up super fast. i think i'll just get a tunable ecu and call it a day

 

Do you have to pass emissions? If not, then go ahead and rebuild it. Just take notes and do some drawings as you dis-assemble it, so you'll have a rebuild sequence all ready for you when it's that time. Only trick you have to watch for is when the carb is out of the car and you pull the top. Keep it level and pull the top. Make notes of everything that you unscrew and where it goes with drawings of what it all looks like and where it came from. Look down all the little holes and see where where the brass rods and check ***** are. Tape up all of them but the one you're going to remove and turn it over slowly. Observe what comes out and the way they're inserted. There are little springs in some but not all of the holes with these check rods and *****. Do each one of those little holes one at a time making notes of position and how it all came out. Do the reverse of your notes when assembling. It's very easy when you know to watch for that. Just takes time and a clean work surface, but it's very easy, believe it...

 

nope no emissions. otherwise all the redneck trucks with open pipes would be screwed.

 

The reason I mention emissions is this. Once it's assembled it's very easy to tune it to run good, but a bitch to run good and get it to pass emissions, stupid old carb.

 

I was afraid of carbs at first too. So I bought one from a guy on the forum for $20 and rebuilt it. It was suprisingly easy. And I learned a heck of a lot about carburators. Good luck.

 

...except how to spell it!! Jes' teasin! No hate, maihn!!

 

it looks like i won't. here are my two problems it seems. now, where in the hell do i get new ones?

 

They'll come with the Mazdatrix carb rebuild kit. Conversely, if you run a good fuel filter out back at the fuel pump and a good fuel filter before the fuel regulator in the engine bay, it could be argued you don't even need those anymore. They are restrictions to fuel flow...

 

yep i got to purolator filters that have the replaceble element before the pump and then before the carb.

 

Ok, a couple of things. Number one, you have to set the choke manually. It won't idle too high unless that's were you have it set.
Number two, if it runs out of fuel at two thousand rpm, you have a fuel supply problem.
Also, exactly how many fuel filters do you have on your fuel lines. They all cause restrictions, too many equal too many restrictions.
hanman

 

ok, again, one before the pump and one before the carb. the screens in the carb were crammed with rust and are falling apart. right now i have an electrical problem that the electrical engineer from work is going to look at tomorrow. then we'll see about the fuel thing. i believe the screens obviously were HIGHLY restrictive. just look at the picture. i'll report tomorrow as this car is pissing me the hell off. i mean fuel problems, then electrical out of nowhere so i can't start to see if i've fixed the fuel. aaaaaaarrrrrrrggggghhhhhhhhhhh.

 

Um........ My car used to do the same thing....... With one of those "universal" fuelpumps..... Took the one off the 80, stuck it on there, and BOOOM, it RUNS....... Now I think I need a regulator....... Sqeeze the hoses with the key off, and then turn the pump on, and sqeeze them.... You shouldnt be able to...... If you can, you pump isnt building enough pressure

 

78/80, first gen non-SE's run very low pressure. You shouldn't need a regulator with the stock pump.
hanman

 

jeremy, I think you probably need to rebuild the carb. If for no other reason than to get the "crud" out of it. Also, I think I would drain the gas tank if you are getting a lot of residue up to the carb.
Also, are you sure the filters that you have installed aren't plugged with gunk?
hanman

 

what kind of electrical problem jumped up on you, if its just dead acting, might be the three cloth looking fuses (fusible links) behind the drivers headlight have come loose, mine did,

 

electrical is odd. it will go dead as you go to turn it over. sometimes it would fix jiggling the negative at the terminal. sometimes not. i redid all positive and negative connections from battery to the other end. i will need a rebuild kit but no $$. i'm just trying to get it to start and run, maybe not great but run. it only has 42,000 miles.anyway, to working on the car.

 

dont know but to me it sounds like a low battery, can u try jumping it off from another car battery, dont think the starter is dragging it but u can tightn the wires going to the starter too....keep it up, your learning what a lot of the ones here have gone thru........and battery connections are some of the major comments here too.....as well as adding an additional ground from the battery to the engine ...........good luck,,,,,,,we will be here for you..........and most of the fixes are so small when u find them........but thats murphys law....

 

Charge up the battery and see what happens. If your starter is drawing too much your lights(I always watched the dome light) will dim way down if its a bad connection they won't. I suppose you could also watch the volt meter too.

 

hehehehe, the problem with wathcing the dome lights, in the sa's, is they usually dont work(both of mine don't) But he could watch the volt meter, on the tach.... when it goes down past 2 it usually, starts to not start....... make sure it is jumpin at about 3

 

Get rid of the fuel filter between the pump and the carb. It will restrict flow and cause the car to run like crap.

 

using it to catch **** coming out of the hardline. already cleaned it out once and seems to be most of it. i will remove it once i get it running good and i notcie that all the loose **** is out of the hardline.

the electrical problem was the stupid battry connectors that i bought due to the worn factory ones. the paint on them was keeping it from having a good connection. nothing a flathead screw driver couldn't fix. thats taken care of. back to the carb.

pulled the carb and, eek, almost dropped one of the nuts into the intake. now what would the difference be from getting a rebuild kit from say advance or autozone versus mazdatrix? i want to get this thing road worthy by may 5 as the autocross points start for my region. anyway, help me out here guys. oh yeah, the intakes holes are plugged now so don't fret anymore. i know i'm going to have someone tell me to do that. thanks for the help on this guys.

 

Hey Jeremy, where is the car at currently? If you are here in Louisville, let me know and I will try to come by after work tomorrow and see if I can be any help. If you are out west, I am taking vacation from Friday of this week til Friday of next week, and will be heading to Eddyville to check on the family house and farm after Thunder. My 80 had been sitting dead for over a year when I got and hadn't been driven over 1000 miles in 3 years. Sounds like you are running into the same kinds of problems I did. Mine had 52,800 miles on it then. Now it has 67,000. Just stay with it and it will all start to fall in line.

Don't get frustrated, and if you got any questions, give me a call. 502-836-2307

Later,
James