If someone had told me we’d be in Amarillo, Texas, for an entire week I’d have laughed them right out of the room. Because, Amarillo. Really? But here we are.
Yesterday we brought the bus in to have the brakes checked out. The problem was just a leaky wheel cylinder, thankfully. An easy enough fix. The guys ordered the parts needed, then put the broken brakes back together so we could limp back down the road to the RV park for the night while we waited for them to arrive.
This morning we dropped it off again. It took a couple of hours longer than expected, mainly because they really really did not want to break the brake line where it goes into the wheel cylinder because they didn’t know where the heck they were going to get a new one if they did.
While they were at it I got to talking to the mechanic. He asked me, “Are you going far?”
I answered that we were sort of driving around indefinitely, to which he replied with a grim face and an, “You gotta fix that thing, man.”
Just a few days ago the engine started having problems. Everything was fine, and then one morning I had a hard time getting it to start. And once it started it idled like crap. And when I put it in gear it would stall unless I had the manual choke opened up a bit and had it running at a pretty high idle.
First thing I did was change the fuel filters. That didn’t make any difference.
Then I pulled off the distributor cap and found that the contacts were all sort of burnt and flaky. The rotor wasn’t clean either. So I replaced those, and replaced the spark plugs. That helped a little, but didn’t solve anything.
Also replaced the ballast resistor, with no change.
So anyway, for a few days I’ve been sort of nursing it along while I fiddle with things. I tried a couple adjustments to the carb, but truthfully I don’t know enough about how a carb works to make any meaningful changes.
The mechanic mentioned that they have an old guy they have do all their carb work, “Like ninety years old, he’s been rebuilding those things his whole life.”
After they told me that the guy could come pull the carb off tonight, and have it back in the morning, we decided to go ahead and let them have it. I was going to replace the distributor with an electronic ignition while we were at it, but after calling everywhere in town they couldn’t track one down and couldn’t have one for another five days. So tomorrow we’ll see if the carb work was enough to get us running good again or not.
The brakes got finished without incident and I took the bus for a little drive and was happy with how good they felt. It’ll be nice having those not be a little nagging thought in the back of my head every time I see a yellow steep incline sign.
While all of this has been going on we’ve been treated kindly by everyone. Our Amarillo Bum friends dropped by unexpectedly and kept us up way too late with Sam Adams and Wheat Thins. The guy who owns the shop handed over the keys to his truck and let us use it to run around town and kill a few hours. And the owner of the RV park gave us a card good for two prime rib dinners at the Big Texan steakhouse.
We’re still ready to get the heck out of Amarillo though.
The Big Texan Steak Ranch picks you up in a limousine, for free, to deliver you to the gluttony. In our case this was less than a five minute trip. Lowe still fell sound asleep. He spent the next hour crashed out on Ali’s chest at a booth in the restaurant. The place is famous for big stuff, including a 72 oz. steak with all the trimmings which is free if you can down it all inside of an hour. I personally went with the puny 18 ouncer. I could have easily eaten two, though I’m not sure if I could have gotten down four of them. Kitschy, but with a fun Texas atmosphere, we had a good time.
33 Comments on “Brakes, Carbs, and Amarillo”
How’s the brake light switch situation?
I got the replacement plastic foot pedal one working right now.
Were the horns on the front of the Limo?
On the front of each one of their limos.
I like the last pic..:). Yep carbs rebuilds are fun..not. I work on old Goldwings 75 to 83 very finicky carbs but a great motorcycle. PS you could have done the rebuild yourself it’s mainly cleaning all the jets and replacing the rubber bits. Just have to remember how it came apart so you can out it back together. Of course a sonic cleaner helps too!!
So are you going to cruise through PHX??
It comes down to the fact that we live in our bus. Sure I could do it myself, but first I’d have to make sure I had every single thing I might need (since I wouldn’t have a way to get around once it’s torn apart), then I would have to do the work in a tiny corner of the bus that the kids couldn’t go near, and then a couple of days later I could put it together and hope for the best. If we lived in a house and the bus was just a weekend warrior I wouldn’t hesitate to do give the carb a shot.
Makes me wonder if the ethanol gasoline has something to do with the engine running rough.
I’m sure it isn’t helping any.
As suggested some time back, “a carb cleaning before you start out” 🙂
I am surprised you got this far before it bit you. Best of luck.
Paul T
Not sure if you remember how busy we were and the fact that it was never above zero degrees in the engine compartment the entire time we were in Minnesota, but not doing this beforehand was a choice made based on those factors. Doing this on the road isn’t really much of a hassle either. I’d rather be 3,000 miles into the trip working on this stuff, than still sitting there not having left.
Ah, Pat, I knew you would say that, just tweaking you 🙂
At least you weren’t in a boat, drifting down on a lee shore.
Two schools of thought, check it before you go, or fix it on the road, best of luck.
Paul T
Wouldn’t the Travco look bitchin’ with a pair of longhorn horns tied on the front?
We’ve thought about it. 🙂
Please rethink the idea.
I’ve worked pretty much all over Texas – , El Paso, Houston, Port Arthur, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Jacksboro, Kingwood, Rockport, and Amarillo/Borger. When my project with El Paso Electric ended I left there the very same day at six in the afternoon for the 10 hour drive back to Dallas. When my contract with Conoco ended in Borger, I also left Amarillo the same day at 5:30 in the afternoon – in a driving rain storm – for the nine hour drive back to Kemah. I couldn’t stand either area and couldn’t wait even another hour to leave once the projects were over. Though I have to say that the people I met and worked with in El Paso were perhaps the nicest people I’ve ever met, those in Borger were perhaps the coldest…every single day in Amarillo/Borger was a major exercise in suck.
Palo Duro Canyon was worth visiting…once. And, I never really lost my creepy awe of Pantex…I drove by it several times a week going from Amarillo to Borger. But, other than that, I though Amarillo was the pits.
NO, no, a big shark fin on top.
I know your philosophy on not replacing what can be fixed, however… a rebuilt fuel injected 318 with electronic ignition, all the hang on’s, and ethanol comptible gaskets, can be bought and installed for about $3500 and wouldn’t take more than a day or two. It’s still a simple engine that could be fixed by most mechanics anywhere. You’d recover your investment pretty quickly just with the improved gas mileage. And the reliability would go way up. Just something to consider if you haven’t already.
No.
At which RV park are staying? Around 1970 or so, my grandparents built Village East RV park right down the street from The Big Texan. It’s still in operation and has an indoor pool for the kids to enjoy.
Amarillo Ranch. Also right down the street and with an indoor pool. Did they change the name?
I just Googled it and yeah, that’s the one! I guess the “new” owner changed it. My grandparents passed away 7 years ago, and they sold it right before then.
Well they left it in good hands. The new owners are great. They are the ones that gave us the free Prime Rib dinner coupon for the Big Texan.
Do u ever cruise through New England ? lots to do in thesummer/fall here
The Texas kitsch is just awesome! Ride on Bums!
The cruise circuit in the carb has little air bleed tubes that mix air with the fuel as its on its way to the venturi. Those clog up easily, with dust, sediment, even dead spiders. It results in poor running at low rpm and idle. Hopefully it was just that, and not a carburetor base gasket getting shriveled from age and letting the carb run too lean during idling and light cruising. I would also make sure the nuts holding the carb down to the intake manifold are all snug.
Thought you were looking for an exhaust manifold.
Yep, did you find us one?
A quality rebuilt 318 with all of the FI components installed in the bus by a shop with a halfway decent reputation would be significantly more than $3,500 installed. I run a repair shop and can say that with complete certainty. Look at the electronic ignition when you get to that point, but don’t spend on a new bullet until it is a necessity. Carry on!
Jesse’s right. Dump the original engine, get a fuelie (for a *lot* less than $3500); it’ll pay for itself in 6 months and continue to pay back in spades in the future. You’ll probably come close to doubling your mileage just for a start…
Sometimes I wonder if people that read our site have really read it at all. There is no way I am going to rip out a perfectly good engine with 70,000 miles on it unless something serious goes wrong. There’s just no way. What’s next, rip out the original engine on our ’65 Porsche and drop in a, oh I don’t know, a Suzuki Samurai fuel injected engine? And all this talk about doubling mileage. Anybody really believe this big bus is going to start getting 18 mpg?
You tell ’em, Pat!
I have to say that I have a hard time believing that changing to a fuel injected version of the same engine (in the same size/weight RV) will double the gas mileage. First of all, I have a fuel injected engine in my RV, and folks with the older, non-injected – but similarly sized – engines in the same rig are not getting half the mileage I am. Maybe 1 or 2 mpg less, but even that seems like a big maybe to me.
There are advantages to fuel injection, but I don’t count “double the mileage” among them.
Hey there Buttercup’s owner here. I drove mine down from MI and I had the same problem with the carb. The fuel pump failed, and then all the dirt from the 50 year old gas tank came up and clogged the fuel lines and messed up my carb. I would look into those things too as you have been driving her a while and maybe churned up the gas tank contents.
Yea, but the first thing Pat did was change the fuel filter. Are the particles in the fuel tank crud smaller than what the filter can trap? If that is the case then a better (if there is one) fuel filter is needed.
And, no, I haven’t been looking for an exhaust manifold.