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The Corvair developed a fuel drip a while ago that seemed to go away but would always appear as soon as the tank was full. Here’s what happened. The fuel line between the tank and engine is connected to the tank by a rubber hose. At one point, tightening the hose clamps stopped the drip but shortly later it would came back. Today was my day to fix this problem.

Not having a siphon, I disconnected the old hose and drained the contents into two gas cans. (That was nice as one of our other cars needed some gas.) Then I took a bit of the hose down to the local NAPA store. For $1.26, I had a foot of 3/8” fuel injector hose that I attached with little difficulty. But after tightening things down, the hose leaked at both ends!

Back to NAPA I walked for the next size smaller hose. This time I purchase a 5/16” hose and appropriate hose clamps. This seemed to be a no-brainer. But after attaching the hose and double clamping it on each end, the leak was worse than before! Can you guess what happened? Yep, it was the steel lines on both ends. A tiny hole in each was spurting out the contents of the gas tank. Not good.

After draining the tank for the third time, I dried off the steel lines and examined them. My plan was to cut them off at the leaking point. But just to be sure, I pulled down the center under cover that covers the center of the car’s duct work, linkage, and lines. (That also gave me the opportunity to paint that cover.) But back to the repair. It would do no good to attach a hose to a line that was leaking further back. Happily, the line was not leaking anywhere else.

So, with the help of a hacksaw, I trimmed the steel fuel lines back and made my final trip to NAPA. (Mike, the guy behind the counter, said I could come back as often as I wished.) This time I bought two feet of 5/16” hose just to be sure. But the extra hose was not necessary. The new hose fit perfectly and is secured with no drips at all. Hurrah!

Total cost: $8.67
Total time: 6 1/2 hours

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Here’s what the car looks like as of today.

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I tried syncing the carbs today. I followed the online instructions and used the unisync tool but now it’s revved up real high. What did I do wrong?

1. I disconnected the throttle connecting plate which connects both carbs.
2. I disconnected and plugged the vacuum advance to the distributor.
3. I dialed in each idle screw and back out 2 turns.
4. I dialed in each mixture screw and back out 2 turns.
5. I used the unisync to measure the air flow into each carb.
6. I adjusted the idle speed to match the air flow.
7. Once matched, I attached the throttle plate and re-attached the vacuum advance.

As soon as I started it up, the RPMs were much higher than usual. So much so that when I let out the clutch the car leaps forward. What did I do wrong?

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I’m very interested in finding out why our 1966 Corvair stalled on the way to work about a week ago. According to this article, stalling and poor performance may be due to carburetor problems.

Sooner or later, the Corvair owner will need to clean or maintain the 2 or 4 carbs on their engine. Even [though] these carbs are basic when compared to carbs 15-20 years later, they still require tuning or cleaning. To ignore this chore is to want idle problems or acceleration issues that may suddenly, and without warning, stall you at a major intersection or worse, cause an accident because the acceleration put you in Harm’s Way suddenly.

I’ve taken a few days off work and am hoping to replace my old carbs with two rebuilds I purchased from an eBay seller. I will keep you posted a to how that turns out.

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After replacing the rear shocks on my 66 Corvair 500, I ran into some problems with the way the car runs. After a trip to a local mechanic, I was told the best course of action was replacing the carburetors. I found and purchased two nicely rebuilt Corvair carburetors on eBay. I’ll let you know if they did the job in a couple of weeks.

This afternoon, I found a good article on Corvair carburetor problems. Corvair Underground is a parts supplier that’s been around for a while. So, it’s a reputable source of information. One of the things they noted was that supposed carburetor problems often turn out to be something else.

If you still can’t solve your carb problems – then – are you sure the problem is your carbs? The fact is, over 1/2 of the carb “problems” that we hear about turn out to be something else – most often distributor problems. We always suggest checking the distributor out FIRST before you even do anything with the carbs. Bad points or condenser – worm points plates and distributor bushings are quite common and could fool you into thinking you have carb trouble.

The mechanic who worked on my car checked over the whole system. He pulled, cleaned, and gapped all the plugs, set the points, and set the carb settings. I had already replaced the cap and rotor. So, I’m thinking it probably is the carburetors. The driver’s side carb had a spring holding the butterfly valve open wide. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the way it was designed to work! In any event, I’m looking forward to getting this car running well enough for a road trip!

For the past week, I have been contemplating what to do about a pesky problem. The Corvair had developed a persistent fuel leak where the sending unit attaches to the tank. One repair shop told me it was wet there and at the metal fuel line which runs through the heat exchanger. With no guesstimate as to how long it would take to fix the leak, I decided to figure things out myself. Am I ever glad that I did!

Today, I drove the car up on my personal car ramps and took a look for myself. All along I was thinking that the leak was coming from the sending unit gasket. But it wasn’t; it was something very simple. When I crawled under the car, I noticed that the leak was coming from a hose clamp near the sending unit. On my car, a rubber(?) hose connects the sending unit to the steel fuel line to the engine. All I did was tighten the hose clamp and the drip disappeared. That’s all it took!

Hurrah!

P.S. Do you know what dripping gasoline does to an asphalt driveway? Yikes!