“When Steve took possession of the 1966 fastback Mustang it still only had 41,050 miles on it because no one had been successful in getting it running. “I replaced the fuel tank, carb, battery, and fluids; still it wouldn’t start,” said Steve. But then he found out why, telling us, “The reason goes way back to when the car was recovered from the brother that returned the car. It seems that out of anger he cut the fuel line to the fuel pump and taped up both ends.” That was it! A spite-filled sabotage job that would have taken two minutes to enact halted this A-Code fastback at 41,050 miles for well over three decades. “
Fishy
Troubleshooting checklist:
1. Is gas getting to carb
2. Is there a spark
Gas?
Spark?
Vroom,,,
.
Yup I used to
Work around cars.
It’s becoming a
Lost Art,Sadly.
So the guy down the street put a ping pong ball into the gas tank. No problem, until you were low on gas. The ball would cut off the fuel line, the engine would die, the ball then freed up and the car would start.
The owner of the car noticed the issue, but could never resolve it, though we saw that he was working on it a lot. Finally put the car up for sale and my neighbor got it at a decent price. He did have to pull the fuel tank to fix the problem though.
I agree - it doesn’t take an expert mechanic to understand that you have a fuel delivery problem if you can’t see/smell gas when the engine is cranked. My brother overhauled the engine in his Ford tractor which, when he was finished, would not start. Remembering one of my old mistakes, I checked and he had failed to install the small insulated washed under the points in the distributor. After installing the washer, the engine started immediately.
Yeah, anyone working on these cars would use your checklist.
As you said, fishy story.