A couple of weeks ago, I drove the 1950 3600 with the original 216 engine about 100 miles or so and once during the trip it stuttered a bit but then not again for another 100 miles or more. Last week it did it again and when I took the foot off the gas, it quit and would not start again until I popped the hood, gave a spritz with some ether and then it would go. It has continued to do this every few miles or less and while it will fire up immediately with the ether, I have to do it a few times to get it stay running. Then I will drive a bit and it will do it again.
I first thought that the filter was letting junk get by since there is almost always some kind of red sandy material in the filter bowl. It is not magnetic so I do not think it is rust and actually looks more like sand. Anyway, I took the filter off and made sure the filter element was seated properly and then cleaned out the bowl. Truck started right up after that with no ether. I was going to take it out for a drive but decided to pull the carb off and clean it out good to be sure that the problem was fixed. Once I got the carb off I was surprised to see very little junk in the bowl - it was quite clean. I still took the various bits out and cleaned it all with carb cleaner and put it back together. I needed just a quick squirt of ether to get it going after that and it idled smoothly. I was able to get a half mile down the road before it started to act up again, stuttering and then just quit. The glass bowl in the fuel filter remains about half full like it always is.
I am thinking my next effort will be to pull the fuel pump off and make sure that is clean as I have found lots of junk in it before. The pump is new last year. I did put a rebuild kit in the carb last year as well and it has run quite well since then.
Anybody have any ideas what might be going on?
