It's a Gas, Part III

As I mentioned, last weekend I pulled the air cleaner and lubricated the throttle linkages. Underneath the air cleaner is what I find to be a really neat looking piece of machinery (but I'm strange in that way..). It is the fuel distributor and does exactly what you think it does. Gas comes in from the hose on the left (I think) and is sent to each of the 8 cylinders out of the stainless steel lines at the top of the unit. There are other outlets (off to the side) for fuel to head back to various other components in the fuel system that I don't completely understand (yet), but you get the basic idea. One fuel tank. Eight Cylinders. This unit is the business end of all that. Oh yeah - it bears mentioning, but you can probably assume - it's an expensive assembly.

Rewind back to delivery day. One thing that has concerned me a little about the car is that it smells like raw fuel. Most people I've talked to just assume it's normal - 'Old cars smell like gas' says Hot Rod Devin. Sounds reasonable. The fuel filter change gave me the chance to inspect the lines at the rear of the car up close, and I wasn't able to find any problems at all. The hoses are old and a little brittle, but no weeping, leaking or other problems I could see.

Back to present day. When I was working around the throttle linkages in this area, I noticed that the lines around the rightmost tube coming off the were was pretty wet, so I'm sure that there is a leak coming from around that spot somewhere. If you care to look at the picture up close, you can see some discoloration on the tube. Fuel is also pooled in the well where one of the connecting bolts sit, so I'm betting this is definitely the source of the smell.

Opportunity! We have discovered a potentially fruitful do-it-yourself repair! Let's evaluate, shall we?

Access to the parts: Fair - Good (If I end up having to rerun fuel lines to the back of the car, it gets ugly, but the unit itself is in the open)
Special Tools required: None that I can think of.
What the shop would charge: An arm, leg and my first born. Huge savings!

Sounds good, but let's think some more:

Danger level: Moderate (It's Fuel)
Potential to mess up something expensive: High (any one of those lines look pretty specialized, and I would be looking at expensive parts with long lead times. Messing up this repair would also render the car inoperable, leading to a hefty tow bill getting it to a place with some expertise)
Downtime if I screw up: Long

Hmmm..... Even though we can't seem to get two sunny days in a row out here, I think this will require some more research. I'm leaning towards making this a winter project?? Of course, the forecast this weekend calls for clouds with a chance of rain, so who knows if we'll ever get a real summer?!?

Changing topics, with respect to the mystery cable that I thought may have something to do with FM reception - The consensus was that it was a CB antenna connection. How retro!