Fuel Issue: Solved!
Mike had a great suggestion for me: put an in-line fuel filter in between the fuel tank and fuel pump. I put one in and guess what...the fuel supply has been supplied. Some gunk fell out when I removed the fuel line and I can already see gunk going into the fuel filter. Mike suggested that I replace the fuel filter in 500 miles and keep a spare in the car. As a result, I utilize worm drive clamps with thumb/wing nut style tighteners. Here it is in-line:




Next project is replacing all the brake calipers and bleeding the brake system...so I can get this cat on the road!

Fuel Issue: Tank to Pump

Mike Dailey came to my aid again with some great tips about chasing down the fuel problem. One area he said was inside the tank where there is a mesh sock that surrounds the pick-up. He said that this sock can get nasty and clog the pick up. You can test this by seeing if any fuel comes out of the line that leads from the tank to the fuel pump.

So first, I put the car high in the air:

I then proceeded to remove the fuel supply line hose from the pump:

Luckily, I planned ahead and wore face hugging googles... Why you asked? As soon as the line was off, I got a face full of gasoline! But hey....at least I know I don't have an issue inside the tank which would have sucked as you have to remove the motor to get the tank out :[

So now the problem is either the fuel pump, the fuel filter or one of Mike's other suggestions, a filter inside the carb. More to come

Pantera Project Launch! On with the fun!
I have finished my cobra kit car project finally and I am ready to sink my teeth into the Pantera (hopefully it won't bite back). The first project I was going to tackle was the frozen brake calipers. I wanted the car on the lift so that I could work comfortably and use the new hyrdaulic lift jack that I bought (works awesome BTW). I ran into a little problem. The car wouldn't start. The engine was turning over and I was getting spark so that must mean I have a fuel delivery problem. Oh joy! Just to make sure, I poured a little gas in the carb to make sure and she started right up. So now I just have to chase down the issue. I figured I would start from the top down. First thing I figured is that I had a stuck needle. So I used some carb cleaner, got out my soft mallet and banged on top of the carb float bowls. Very scientific! I then poured some gas into my "Hawt Sawce" bottle (just a BBQ/Catsup squirter) so that I could easily pour gas down the vent tube of the carb to fill the bowls.

Once full, I could hear that gas was being squirted when I acctuated the accelerator linkage on the side of the carb. As a result, I figured that their was an issue farther down the line.

I took pictures of the fuel filter (think there is only one) and it looks dry!

I am going to change the fuel filter but if that is OK, then I either have a bad fuel pump (which is weird as it looks new) OR I have a plugged line somewhere....which could be a fun (read not so fun) project...but let's not get ahead of ourselves!

At this point I figured I could fill up the float bowls and drive the car up onto the lift so that I could lcomplete the diagnosis....filling the fuel bowls up when/if I ran out of gas. Worked like a charm. Now the snake (aka the cobra) has traded places with the Panther (aka pantera) on the lift:

I am not sure if I will tackly my list serially or jump on other projects as I get stumped. I'll probably jump around while the grey matter works on particular problems or I wait for parts. Either way, I'll be making updates here. If you read my cobra blog, I'll most likely follow a similar M.O.