viper771

Hey everyone! Since I have had a few days to kind of check the car over I noticed a few things. Does anyone know if a full size chevy door jamb switch will work for the starfire? Also, I have a few leaks. I looked under the car and I see that the oil drain plug is leaking...as well as this rectangle plate that is a few inches behind it (I am not sure what that is at the moment). There is a small port on the fuel pump that seems to have some kind of leak. The hole is stuffed with some kind of filter like material. I am not sure if that is normal or not.

So far that is all I can find as of yet.. Hopefully these are easy fixes. I would like to get the car on the road in a few weeks to try it out

59-59-59

Oil drain plug.. Try tightening it.. That rectangle plate is kind of an inspection plate that can be taken off and the flywheel teeth can be seen there. Could be a leaky front seal of the Slim Jim transmission or maybe a rear main seal going bad. Can you tell what color it is from the leak??

viper771

I will have to check on the color. I just crawled under the car with a flash light tonight to look at what parts I need to order. I though that it was just the drain plug leaking..but I saw a few drips coming from the screws of that inspection plate. I know that the car was sitting for awhile so maybe the seals dried up??

Fingers crossed that it isn't the slim jim!! That would be super bad

D. Yaros

You may want to try installing a washer on the oil pan drain plug. But of course, you have to first figure out how to get the plug off/on. If it is a factory plug the a 1/2" ratchet with no socket on it will fit/work nicely.

viper771

Thanks Yaros!..I was prepared for that lol! I looked at a few other posts where ppl were trying to figure out how to take those things off. I noticed that the plug was not flush with the pan...meaing im sure I could tighten it up a bit more. I will go take a closer look today.

viper771

Well I didn't get to crawl under the car to see what color the fluid is yet.. that will have to wait until tomorrow. But I was able to see what did or did not work. The summer ventilator and heater stuff doesn't work at all... not even the fan. When I push the buttons on the summer ventilator, I can hear that there is a leak somewhere within the unit itself.. I am not sure what I would need to do to fix that. As for the heater stuff... could be anything from a bad switch to bad motor.. or something else. I figure that I will replace all the vac tubing as well. I am not sure if the little vac canisters all over the place are any good yet either.

My interior lights all work,except for the ones that I need to get new bulbs for. I was pretty excited about that. I need to find door jamb switches though since they sort of work for now, but if the drivers door is opened all the way, the lights will go out, or just the rear console light will stay on.

After a look under the dash, the wiring looks like it is in good shape. It isn't all hacked up or anything at all. I will need to get a 61 manual so I can figure out where all the grounds are. I plan to unplug each connector, clean it up, and reinstall. Hopefully that will fix any woes.

I did find out why my garage smelled like gas when I went in there. I pulled the air cleaner off and found that the plunger on the carb is all rotted (see pict). There was all kinds of gas in there. I am not sure if the middle carb gasket is leaking or not yet either. Other than that, the carb looks restored. I was quite surprised. It is the orig green color.

The "steam" I saw before is actually coming from the oil filler tube. I am not sure if this is normal or not. The port on the side of the fuel pump (see pict) has oil coming out of it a bit. I have no idea on that one. The radiator looks good, no leaks. I am putting a new overflow hose on and getting a new thermostat just in case. The upper rad hose felt warm so maybe the thermostat is working...but I will change it anyway.

I think that is it for today, LOL! I had her running for awhile and cleaned the interior out a bit. The control arm bushings are bad so I get a "clunk" when I stop when going reverse. I can't wait to get it on the road and do an actual test drive. Any advice or info you guys can give me would be great!!!

Don R.

Looks like ethanol is doing its thing, time for a fuel pump and carb rebuild using new alky-proof materials.

viper771

awww..I was afraid of that. That was my first thought since I knew that was a primary concern for old car lovers. So I take it that the fuel pump isn't supposed to leak oil lol.. I guess that isn't oil at all. It is just dirty gas from the vent. I will have to find a place to rebuild my carb so it still looks good.

justinj

Some of the carb kits (including the one from Fusick) don't come with the plunger rubber piece. It's possible that your carb was rebuild but the rebuilder didn't have that part and left the old rotted out plunger.

The Napa carb kit has the plunger piece. Might be worth buying that and replacing the plunger yourself before paying for a rebuild.

viper771

There is a local napa. It that hard to replace? Do I have to take the carb apart to replace that or does it just pop out? Thanks for that info! I can deal with a rebuild of the fuel pump..but a carb rebuild right now would be too expensive

Even if the plunger is ok... should their still be gas coming up though there? I figured the plunger was more of less a dust cover. I could be wrong.