Debugging a Model A

I got a call today from my father. Turns out that he was having a fuel problem with his new Model A Ford hotrod. The thought was that it was probably out of gas, but he wasn't sure because his fuel gauge didn't work.

He basically built the Model A from scratch. He pulled the rusted out frame and body from the woods and rebuilt it from the ground up. It's been cool watching him build it up from nothing but I must say, it's incredibly complicated to rebuild a car, even an old one. I sometimes imagine trying to rebuild the van from the ground up and it's mind boggling. The Model A is a 1930's car so it's not quite as bad. I can see now why Peter D has taken 8+ years to rebuild his 60's era Beetle.

So back to the task at hand. Putting more gas in the tank did NOT help and we had to assume that the fuel filter was clogged. A quick trip to his house yield s a fuel filter from an earlier vintage that should work fine. swap out the filter and he gets about another mile further along before it dies again.

This time we find that the fuel line is clogged and the filter seems fine (the new filter was in a transparent housing). So a wire up the fuel line and a drain pan was necessary. And, low and behold, the fuel line was clogged up with ... bugs. That's right, the fuel tank was full of dead ants and metal shavings. Well, not full, but enough to clog the fuel lines a few times. We babied it home and my father spent the rest of the day cleaning it out. yuck.

I wish I'd have gotten picture of the actual bugs. It brings new meaning to the term debugging.