1950 L/C Has Sudden Loss of Power

[TWChamp]

Saturday morning I put 20 miles on my 1950 just purchased Land Cruiser, to try out the new brake job. The brakes were perfect and the car ran fine until the last mile. I drove to the local boat ramp to check the river water level. I backed up from the ramp and backed into a parking area. My left rear wheel ran up on about a 6" curb, and the engine stalled. I restarted it and slowly drove ahead off the curb, but it felt like the engine had no power. I knew the tank was getting low, but when I installed the new fill hose last week, it felt like it still had about 4 gallons of the 10% ethanol. I poured in 5 gallons of good gas without ethanol, but that didn't help either. It starts and idles fine, but when I step on the throttle it doesn't want to rev up.

It just seems strange that this started the instant I backed onto the curb. The fuel line crosses under the frame rail in the left rear, but that is perfect, and not bent. I bought a new fuel pump kit from Dave while I was in Sough Bend a few weeks ago, so I took the pump and carb apart yesterday. I see nothing wrong with either one. It acts like the power valve in the carb is stuck, but everything looks fine. Tomorrow I'll put my suction pump on the fuel line to make sure it can get gas OK from the tank.

[StudeRich]

The way that it happened, makes me wonder if you could have pushed Debris over the Outlet at the front of the Tank when you raised the rear?

Drawing a vacuum on the line COULD make it worse, where Blowing into it would temporarily dislodge any obstruction but don't use much pressure with a good amount of Fuel or you will lose expensive Fuel.

[Mrs K Corbin]

exhaust crushed? something pushed up inside it?
does it idle fine? what's it do while not in gear?

You may have some trash in the tank that got sucked up as well.

[TWChamp]

I was backing up slowly when the left rear tire ran up the 6" curb, and nothing got damaged. I was also thinking about junk in the tank pickup. I'll remove the cap and blow back with my mouth. If that seems OK, then I'll try sucking with my vacuum pump.

BTW, those 2 aftermarket mirrors on the car are totally worthless, and that's why I didn't see the curb. Original style mirrors are $80 each, so that will have to wait.

[Jeffry Cassel]

Years ago my Buick Super was in need of a carburetor clean up which I did one Saturday. Went to Drive-In theater that nite and car ran perfectly. You probably don't recall drive-ins but they had little hills you drove up on so you could see the screen more easily (if you actually went there to see the movie) It came time to leave and the car would not start until we got out and pushed it off the little hill so that it was level again. The float level was just a tad off so it got no gas is slightly uphill. Sunday took 4GC apart again and readjusted the float level; problem fixed! Remember most problems are fairly simple. Also consider checking fuel pressure : if some doof put moonshine in it they could have very quickly ruined the fuel pump.

[Mike Sal]

Are you sure the brakes aren't dragging (like snag an emergency brake cable when you went over the curb)?

[TWChamp]

No, the brakes are fine, but I still want to fix the parking brake cable where it rubs against the exhaust pipe. I was looking in my parts book this morning, and I see the 1950 Land Cruiser has exhaust pipe 526299, which is a different number than the 1950 Commander exhaust pipe. I'll bet someone in the past installed a Commander pipe, and that's why it's rubbing.

Jeffry's story reminds me of one I heard about 25 years ago. A woman drove to church and parked her car, but when she went to leave, the engine wouldn't start. She had it towed to the shop, but it started in the shop, and they couldn't find anything wrong with it. The next week the very same thing happened, and once in the shop, they still couldn't find anything wrong with it. The third Sunday, the same thing happened, but this time someone noticed that when she backed into her parking spot, she backed up enough to ram her tailpipe into the dirt mound.

I'm headed to the store now to buy some fittings, so I can check the fuel line. I need the fittings anyway so I can have my electric pump as a handy backup.

[Champ51]

When our Champion lost its vacuum advance, it would idle great, but had no power. It lost the advance on a rather steep slope.

[TWChamp]

I slipped a long clear hose onto the flex fuel line by the pump, and then blew into the tank and sucked the gas back by using my mouth. The gas flows freely, so I guess I'll continue installing the new fuel pump kit, and put the carb back together.

[TWChamp]

Finally got the fuel pump and carb back together and installed, after finding nothing wrong with either part. I did use the fuel pump diaphram (ethanol resistant) that I bought from Dave at South Bend. I just put another 5 miles on it, and it's running perfect, so the mystery continues as to what happened in the first place.