
Salt on the roads and it’s time to take ‘Moody Blue’ the ’66 Studebaker Commander off the road for the winter. I’ll be switching between the Chevy and the Stude over the winter. I need to do work on the doors and a the hood. Also I’ve decided to put the front bumper back on and see if I like the look better.

The engine and the AC worked flawlessly over the summer. I was able to switch back to the original primary needle springs and still not get any hesitation. Bumping up the timing from 4 to 8 degrees did the trick. It eliminated both the take off hesitation and the sluggish acceleration from stop when the AC was on.

Meanwhile back at the Chevy my startup after the carb job and a new fuel pump was a failure. Spun the engine over many times and no fuel. Put a little fuel down the carb and it started right up. Did that a number of times and still no fuel. Good side is that when it did start for a brief time it ran at a nice fast idle. It should be OK if I can get the fuel up.

Nothing for it but to pull the pump and check it out. The old short fuel pump isn’t correct for the ’79 model. Hard to see, but the pump arm on the new pump is further out from the mounting face. Could this be the problem? I’ll take the pump back and get a new one in case it is faulty.
Next: more on the pump and a bit on the Studebaker.