Bad gas or bad carb?

[Goebeler]

I just took my cruiser out for a 30 minute drive after it being in the shop sitting for quite a long time. I drive it once in a while around the block but not much. I put 10 fresh gallons of gas in it and drove it for about 30 minutes. Drove like crap. It has very little power and smells like sh-t. I dropped it off at a buds to do some wet sanding for a few days and when I drove it home, it drove a bit better but not all that much. It ran great prior to storing.

I think I am going to change most other fluids, change out the t-stat, and run some more fresh gas in the tank.

Any advice as to what I should do in terms of other work to get it running well again? I was thinking of sending the carb to Mark A. in Cali for a freshen up on the carb but if not ceeded, will try other tune up ideas.

By the way, it is a bone stock 1975 fj40. No engine mods at all.

What to do...

 

[bsmith123]

bad gas

bad gas, bad smell you sure it is not the steering wheel actuator?

Trying some carb cleaner, gumout additive and fuel stabilizer could not hurt if you are leaving it sit

The fuel evaporating in the carb can leave a sticky gummy residue

clear that out and you might be okay with the gas you added

so people will say anything from a few weeks to a year but I think it is the gummy carb that is the real prob not the gas in the tank

 

[Goebeler]

been driving the crap out of it and it still has little power. the bad gas smell is all gone but so it the power. I'll try the carb cleaner and see if it helps. I am wondering if the plugs might be tired or something else. But not sure what else could go bad from sitting.

might just start changing stuff til' it improves.

I will take a special look at the steering wheel actuater and be sure to eliminate that from the list. never thought of that!

 

[KayakPanic]

one issue that has caused me many MacGuyver man-hours, is the gas TANK on my bone stock 7/'77 FJ40.

there is rusting that is apperant when looking into the gas filler (and up on the top of the inside of the tube for some reason).

i have yet to 'boil out' the gas tank, and have read about radiatior shops that will clean, seal, and paint the inside of the stock gas tanks.

besides the many hasty pull overs and many, many empty cans of carb cleaner and expletives expressed, i just run mid-grade gas, clean the carb once a week or more, and run fuel addatives like what was stated before.

occasionally I would have to add another battery and jump while spraying carb cleaner or starting fluid into the carb, but that proved to be an ignition problem with the distributer points. it may be your gas tank, fuel filter, or an ignition issue?

replace cap, rotor, check points, etc. should be a small fix.