1973 Town Car - what did i get myself into?

[Castrosua]

So posting some stuff about Black Jack. Hes no longer on daily driver duty, but, hes dedicated for weekend trips, especially when I go pick up Lorelei from her garage. I gotta wonder what the guy that parks behind me in the garage thinks.

"wait..wasn't that car brown and really nice looking? now its black and looks like its the spawn of "the Car"...oh wait..its brown again"

Anyway, hes running great. Seems he likes the colder air, except for the headlights. Theyre creeping up after a few days of almost freezing temps. Oh well.

And yes, i did put the 73 up for sale, but the more I think of selling the less I wanna do it. Just figure i'll be one of those guys to drive the price up for our 70s cars

BTW. I just got the Marti reports, the deluxe, window sticker and Eminger report. So the cool stuff I found out:

Black Jack was built Nov 8th 1972. Hes a Wednesday car, so that explains why he's pretty solid after such a hard life.
Sold to Harvey M Stewart in Syracuse NY

Looks like 60s, so before Black Jack was sold

The 8track is NOT factory, as i suspected. Oddly enough as a Town Car, he only came with the standard radio (Id have to look it up if it was am or am/fm)

45,288 4drs built for 73 and only 1041 black, and only 570 triple black with leather. Overall, hes 1 of...drum roll...161 (ouch lol)

Price shipped to dealer was 6525.71. Sticker price 8621.54. Gotta love the cents too lol

13 gallons of gas was 5 bucks 20 cents...

And he was delivered by rail..choochoo!

I love Marti reports, makes you bond with your car so much more

[ContiFan]

Looks like 60s, so before Black Jack was sold

Dealership picture you posted looks to be from 1972ish based on cars in showroom, not 1960s, which would be fairly close to when "Black Jack" may have been on the lot.

Below are a couple of 1973 ads from the Harvey M. Stewart LM dealership:

July 1973

November 1973

[Castrosua]

LOL, nice that made me smile. Thanks for posting those

[Castrosua]

So Black Jack is down for the count. He starts up, and runs with choke, and runs under load or speed, but idle drops, and sputter, put put and done. I checked under the air cleaner and its SOAKED. So my carb is flooding big time. I wonder why, of it bad fuel could have caused this. It was sputtering for the last few drives but nothing bad, then a few stalls, but got home and now this, barely able to drive.

Im calling the gas company and going to have them sent out somebody to take a sample and see if there was too much ethanol and it ruined the seat on my metering pin...

[Castrosua]

So I got a question for you guys....

Im debating on a trade, to give up Black Jack for this...

thats my lil nephew! the funny thing, is the car was built on his birthday, although many years before lol

It would be a trade with some cash I have to give. The 66 mustang for 5k and my 73 for 3, so trade plus 2k...

My brother just bought it for a steel, with the intention to flip it. The car has no rust (its a california car). Its not a 289, its a straight 6 with a 3 speed manual. Funny thing is, that the car WAS a 289 but was recently swapped to this, so the engine is brand new as is the tranny (dont know why that happened, and why brand new stuff was put in versus just a direct swap, but thats what the previous owner wanted, and now she sold it to my brother.)

What do you guys think? Should I swap?

[sauceman]

I would. Parts are so easy to get for those 1st gen Mustangs, and if you put it back to a 289 it will be worth a lot more.


cheers

[Castrosua]

Thats what Im thinking...Ill check it out over the weekend and see what it looks like in person and what it drives like

[Castrosua]

So I got the 73 started up, despite 16 gallons of water in the tank.

Sunoco is officially on my unapproved fuels. I smelled what I pulled out and its not straight water, but it doesnt smell like gas. It smells more like rubbing alcohol. (ethanol anyone?) Anyway, avoid this gas at all costs, otherwise youll get stranded. What made all this worse is that I called, got a claim number and they deny it. It didnt matter that the chances of another carbureted car getting gas on a weekday evening while its raining are virtually nil.

So yeah, if this is the level of gas they sell, no thanks. I was hoping they would tow the car, and drain all this garbage from the tank, but thats not going to happen. Dry gas didnt do a think, and with my injury, crawling under the car isnt a pleasant prospect for me, so I have to get creative.

Here is the what I came up with. The car IV, complete with IV bag

gas IV

The 2 liter bottle is dangling from the hood latch, connected to the carb. I realized just now that I didnt have to squeeze it, that once the level in the bowl was low enough the gravity would fill it. I did have to give it a squeeze to compensate for the bottle being stiff.

lots of fuel lines going all sorts of places

"IV bag" and filter

I did add a filter because the gas is from the Crown Vic that I parted out, and the fuel is a bit old, and overall meh. But the 73 ran on it just fine!

Water being pumped out

Heres the squeezed bottle, just like an emptying IV bag lol

Emptying IV bag

One thing to be careful is how quick the jerry can fills! It was 3 minutes, no more and it was about to overflow. I had to run to turn the key off lol.

Filled up 5 gallons in about 3 minutes

So, I need to go dump this fuel ( I will keep a sample and have it tested to see just what it is they peddle as premium gas these days)
I have maybe 3 more to go then fill em up and I can drive my car again!

[Castrosua]

So all that didnt work. Still too much water or something. The car starts up, but then dies. It only keeps running if its advanced so far that the starter barely can handle it. So Im shelving this project for now.

[Dan Szwarc]

Dirt in the carb?

[Castrosua]

Nope. Carb is clean. I did replace the filters (all of them) just to be safe. I was suspecting slob in the timing chain, or the distributor. So I wanted to time it, so of course I pull the vacuum advance, and it started nice.

The moment vacuum advance gets connected it dies. I checked if there is a leak in the diaphragm and none that I can tell. So it seems like the distributor itself is shot. Because this car just wants to sit all year.

So its looking like Ill have to order a new distributor.

[66Lincoupe]

HOLY COW, how'd I miss this one???

What happened with the Mustang? Does he want a '66 Coupe? I'd trade mine for the Mustang and 5K cash if it's not rusty

[Castrosua]

Miss which one? lol

Ill ask him right now. I think he might take that trade. But I cant really speak for him

As far as the 73, the car is running now. Adcance and all, timing is good although the dwell is 30. Not perfect but it was done by eyeball.

The only thing I can think is that it took some time for the octane boost to mix with the 5 gallons or so left in the tank. Once that happened no more jumping idle varying timing and things like that.

I was thinking it could be a sloppy timing chain, or bad distributor. The distributor could still be off a bit, but a timing chain doesnt fix itself just like that. (especially since I gave up on the car for today, so all I did was button it back, planning to leave it for a while. Then I start it in a "what the hell" moment and it started. Holds a nice idle in gear, moves in my driveway nice)

I be stumped, so Im chalking it up to gas. I will have to run it a few tanks before I do the timing and dwell and carb settings properly to get the car running perfect.

[Castrosua]

And of course this morning I wanted to go fill it up with gas (it has a quarter tank now) and its dead as a door nail. I know Ive said it before, but Im close to chucking this car. Ive just about had enough of this. I still have zero ideas of what could cause this on again off again problem.

This car is getting very close to just getting parked and forgotten. Once I get the surgery I will not have the time or health for at least a year.

[Castrosua]

Im starting to part this piece of garbage out. Im at the end of knowing what the hell is wrong. It cranks and slows at some point as if the starter is fighting ignition. So timing, well Ive tried just about every timing placement tooth my tooth with the distributor (which is new, along with just about everything else electric and fuel related, save for the carb and pump that are a year old only) and nothing. No start.

The last start it had was when i tried to drive it, and it started fine, put into gear fine, started moving and then done. Since then its dead as a door nail. So Im going to start parting this pos out.