Hey guys! I'm hoping to get some ideas or suggestions. I just got done changing my thermostat and heater hoses as well as flushing my radiator. After putting everything back together my motor is misfiring (at idle there is a distinct clicking/ticking sound coming from the motor). I didn't let the car get up to operating temps to see if that helped, the missing bothered me.
While changing the thermostat, I had several bolts break on me. I ended up having to replace the thermostat housing itself. In order to get at the broken bolt(right side thermo housing bolt connected to the head, the shorter one) I had to remove the float bowl cover on the front carb. The bolt sheared leaving the rest of teh bolt inside the head, it had to be drilled out.
I had to make a new gasket using that gasket paper stuff. would the thickness of the paper used affect the float level? The gasket I made is a little bit thicker than the gasket that came off.
When I removed the cover there was gas in the bowl, when I was putting the cover back on I noticed the bowl was completely dry.
The car's PO wasn't even running a thermostat. He did mention that he used to auto-x it and I've heard of some racers not running thermos. I'm not sure if it makes a difference but the motor was tuned (carbs adjusted and timing dialed in) a few months ago while the car was running thermostat-less.
When I first tried starting the car there was a "clank" sound and the motor wouldn't turn. I gave it a second and tried again and it fired right up.
Is it possible the chain jumped a tooth? The car actually idles just fine when running at idle, not jumping around it holds steady. (just a random thought, I'm leaning away from this idea)
While I was working, I did remove the distributor cap with all the cables still attached and swung it out of the way. I did check to make sure they were all plugged back in nice and tight. It's dark out now and started raining earlier so I didn't have time to check for sure but I'll take a look at the inside if the distributor cap tomorrow.
I did research on L24 misfiring but the majority of the issues seemed to stem from ignition related problems(obviously) like plugs or valve adjustment even. my car sat over a week but nothing inside the motor was touched and the car ran fine before all this so I'm inclined to think that may not be the cause. I'd like to rule out things that I may have done that might directly cause the missing first.
I'm inclined to think that my tinkering with the front carbs float bowl cover has something to do with all this, but is it possible that by removing the cover and replacing the gasket, and consequently allowing the bowl to dry out, cause the misfire?
Thanks guys!
Ray
