1928 Essex Not happy

Unknown
Unknown
edited November -1 in HUDSON
My Essex lately has not been running to well, Yesterday I had a film gig to do which was an hours drive, in peak hour traffic. Prior to leaving i pulled the carby apart as if it sounded it like was starving for fuel and running rough at higher revs. Appears Clean.

There is plenty spark at idle but their is a little free play on the dizzy.

Today looked at the vacuum tank. Very clean!!!.

What could It be...

For the trip to the filming and during the day it went perfect but on the way home, again in peak hour traffic the car went like a bucket of you know what.

Does anyone have any clues? IT COMES & GOES!!!

Regards Jeff

Comments

  • Huddy42
    Huddy42 Senior Contributor
    G'Day Jeff,



    Sell it and buy a 1965 "R" model, get with the strength.



    All jokes aside, how old is the fuel in the car Jeff, this modern fuel does not last as long as the old fuel used to, have had trouble with this modern fuel myself. Just a thought.
  • tigermoth
    tigermoth Expert Adviser
    jeff, how familiar are you with the inner workings of the vacuum tank? clean is important, but not as important as no vacuum leaks and valves seating/sealing properly. i also go back to the old saying "90% of a cars carburation problems are found in the ignition system". what are your thoughts of a heat related break down of an electrical component? regards, tom
  • hudsonsplasher1
    hudsonsplasher1 Senior Contributor
    Jeff,

    A bad condenser can act like that at times. Also, a bad coil can act like that, especially when hot. I would start with a complete tune up. Plugs points, condenser, and even try a different coil. It could be just a process of elimination. I have a 28 also, and a simular problem. Ran like crap. My problem was in the carb. Took it apart and a good cleaning, and it runs fine now. But, it sounds like you have done that already. Let us know what the problem was.

    Gene.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Play in the distributer is one cause of such behavior, up/down slack of shaft should be almost undetectable.. weak springs if it has them can also let it bounce around --sometimes smooth sometimes rough is a pretty good indication one of these this is what it is, BUD
  • Joe30Essex
    Joe30Essex Expert Adviser
    hudson56 wrote:
    My Essex lately has not been running to well, Yesterday I had a film gig to do which was an hours drive, in peak hour traffic. Prior to leaving i pulled the carby apart as if it sounded it like was starving for fuel and running rough at higher revs. Appears Clean.

    There is plenty spark at idle but their is a little free play on the dizzy.

    Today looked at the vacuum tank. Very clean!!!.

    What could It be...

    For the trip to the filming and during the day it went perfect but on the way home, again in peak hour traffic the car went like a bucket of you know what.

    Does anyone have any clues? IT COMES & GOES!!!

    Regards Jeff
    Jeff,

    Sounds just like what my Essex went through. After a LONG time in stop and go traffic, it just limped along till it finally died. I did everything that has been described here-carb removal, vacuum tank cleaning, new condensor, set timing-all of that and no go. Discovered my stoplight switch had been sticking on, don't know how long that had been happening, in any case it drained quite a bit out of a three year old battery. While the battery would turn the motor over-it didn't seem to have enough juice to really spark enough. Put a new battery in, and everything works fine! (another guy in the club had mentioned to me he had a similar problem, discovered his horn was somehow draining the battery. Once he disconeccted the horn- the problem went away.) Give a new battery a try, who knows it may work like it did for me-these 6 volt batteries are funny things!
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Joe,

    I had my '29 Hudson SuperSix Victoria do this too, and after blowing out lines, it would be OK for a few minutes, but then starve for fuel at speeds over 30 or so. Finally, I pulled the gas tank and found a 1/2" diameter piece of cork gasket that someone cut out of the fuel pickup tube housing gasket and dropped into the tank and left it there. It would get sucked up against the pickup tube and partially block it. When I blew back thru the line, it would move it a little way from the pickup tube, but eventually suck it back against it again, repeating the problem. I had replaced the fuel filter, first thinking that was the problem. I wasn't getting trash in the fuel filter, but this piece was far too big to come thru the line anyway. It's a lot of work to pull the tank on my '29, but after seeing what was in it, it's just as well I did, because the problem wasn't going away till I did. Good luck!
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    hudvic29 wrote:
    Joe,

    I had my '29 Hudson SuperSix Victoria do this too, and after blowing out lines, it would be OK for a few minutes, but then starve for fuel at speeds over 30 or so. Finally, I pulled the gas tank and found a 1/2" diameter piece of cork gasket that someone cut out of the fuel pickup tube housing gasket and dropped into the tank and left it there. It would get sucked up against the pickup tube and partially block it. When I blew back thru the line, it would move it a little way from the pickup tube, but eventually suck it back against it again, repeating the problem. I had replaced the fuel filter, first thinking that was the problem. I wasn't getting trash in the fuel filter, but this piece was far too big to come thru the line anyway. It's a lot of work to pull the tank on my '29, but after seeing what was in it, it's just as well I did, because the problem wasn't going away till I did. Good luck!
    This sort of thing is why I put a screen with a big intake area on the end of my pick up tube,lets the gas in but keeps ALL other crud away from the end of the tube---BUD
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Jeff, that is a beautiful Essex! Yes, I too, put a large volumn screen on the end of my pickup tube on my '29 Husdon Victoria, so that if any other large floating items are hiding in there somewhere, they can't stop the gas flow. I wasn't getting junk in the fuel filter at the carb, but that large hunk of cork sure caused running problems at anything over about 25 or so.
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