In rec.autos.tech, on Wed, 5 Jul 2017 09:09:49 -0700, The Real Bev
wrote:

On 07/05/2017 08:59 AM, micky wrote:
In rec.autos.tech, on Wed, 5 Jul 2017 08:52:08 -0700, The Real Bev
wrote:

On 07/05/2017 07:45 AM, micky wrote:

2) I learned to not pour eveything into the gas tank and save some for
the carburetor. I'd guess between a quarter and an eighth of a cup,
maybe less. That always worked well.

We always did that. Never a fire.

I think I tried starter fluid
earlier, but maybe the car didn't run as long on starter fluid as it did
on gasoline.

Long ago we bought a motorhome that had been sitting for quite a while.
We drove it home slowly, but it didn't have enough power (marginal
fuel pump, maybe?) to make it up the "hill" out of the railroad
underpass. BUT by feeding starting fluid direct to the carb (engine is
right there between the front seats) we made it out.

Wow, what a great story, and I'm impressed that you thought of it.

I don't think it was me -- either hubby or friend.

How long were you stuck in the underpass before you thought of it?

Minutes, if that.

The closest I have is the '67 Pontiac, I think it was, that for a while
wouldnt' start on cold days. I'd get out, brush the snow off the hood
so it wouldn't shut again after I opened it, and spray in starting
fluid, and then rush back to the driver's seat to start the car before
the vapors escaped (not sure if that really happened, but seemed
likely.)

This was a nuisance, so I put a little plastic tube in some aquarium
tubing which went through the firewall into the glove comparment where I
put the can of starting fluid. This worked great for the whole cold
part of the winter.

Excellent!

On a vacation with the '68 Dodge van it inexplicably lost significant
power, such that we couldn't make it up the on-ramp in Gallup, NM. A
convertible full of happy Indians volunteered to push us up onto the
freeway, and we were OK from then on. A little later we figured it
might be the fuel pump, so I sat in the back of the van with a can of
gas on my lap which fed into the carb by a long rubber tube (hi-tech
gravity feed!).

Excellent!

Ultimately it was determined that there was a kink in
the fuel tank vent hose :-(

I wonder how that happened.

Good times...

One remmebers the bad things more than the good things, and if the bad
things aren't that bad, like these stories, they are good memories.