[calvin]

The tow plan for the Manta failed as the 4cyl Toyota is not up to the task so I am driving The Manta from St Louis to Las Vegas up to San Francisco and back to Vegas to it's new home in the land of don't need a garage.....Hopefully I won't need a garage on the way..Wish me luck! Anybody along the HWY 44 to Ok. City and then on 4O to Kingman AZ corridor that see’s a green manta by the side of the road please stop and help.


Calvin

PS Gary will work out tires in early jan..

 

[Gary]

Have a safe trip, Calvin. Good luck and I hope it is uneventful.

 

[Old Hippie]

Good riding, calvin. Looks like the weather will be co-operating with you. Will be interested to hear how you make out in the job. NO! I don't mean the show girls!
Barry

 

[opeldean]

flag for window

calvin: I have a small red,chiefs flag for your window.This will allow safe passage thru springfield and joplin on I-44.old hippie
probably has one for the other side...since you may not have anyone riding shotgun..

 

[Gary]

Think a Patriots flag would put him in danger?
All that is needed in OK is an OU banner.

 

[calvin]

Day one

The first 200 miles were a breeze...after that doom and gloom that goes from bad to worse.

Keeping my foot out of it for the first tank of gas (my tank holds 9 gallons) I made 213 miles not bad with 4 Weber’s... tootled along at 4500 rpms however fast that is as the speedo decided to become erratic.

The Weber’s decided to spice things up a bit too and the float closest to the engine on cyl 3 and 4 separated, filled and sank... the carb responded by spitting gas onto the header. Mileage drops to 60 miles for half a tank in republic Missouri I start the first of many repairs..

First I messed with the chokes and the top part on the inlet as once when it came loose and spilled gas all over redoing it fixed the problem.. No luck so I break into the carb and find the broken float. Pull the offending float and head to town sadly Wal-Mart the only game in town on has regular no quick dry welds so I experiment with their limited selection.

The first instant weld product I tried failed instantly when exposed to gas. Another trip into Wal-Mart yields a product that claims to be immune to oil and gas.. So I try that give it half hour drive time and head out...

Make it another tank of gas with only a slight drop in mileage... fill up take off and notice that it is dropping off badly again.. 2 miles out of Oklahoma City I hit a bump and I saw a fuse go, #2 the dash and right taillight are out.. Pull over to fill up in the dark I rip the carb apart and see the float is separated again. Make it to Okie city. I drive another mile to the closest hotel, which oddly enough turns out to be the same hotel that I picked the car up when I bought it a year and a half ago.

I at stay the night thinking I didn't give ithe float enough time to set up back in republic so I pull the float and take it in to fix it overnight vowing to fix the troublesome fuse in the AM. Around 600 miles in 12 hours anout 50-50 between drive and repairs..

this will turn out to be the good day.

 

[oldopelguy]

seal-all

You need a product called "seal-all" that is common enough to be sold even at Wal-Mart. It goes on like thick model glue and dries like soft fingernail polish. It has a high "fill" and will both bridge any gaps in the float and seal them. I know it's impervious to gas because I've used it several times to "glue" rusty gas tanks back together.

You weren't by any chance near Perry, Oklahoma were you? It's my own personal Bermuda Triangle. I've been broken down there 7 times in 4 different cars, 2 of the cars and 5 of the instances being in Opels. I think the Karma in central OK is bad for Opels.

 

[Travis]

Calvin,

I've had good luck with the Seal-All gas resistant sealant which is available at Wal-Mart. I suspect this is what you found? However, I've not been real impressed with it's strength. I've found the trick to be to use the seal-all to protect the stronger glues which are not resistant to gas. In your case, you could try gluing the float together with something strong like a two part epoxy or possibly superglue and then coat with the seal-all to protect the glue.

If you were closer to NH I'd come give you a hand...

Good luck,

-Travis

 

[Travis]

Re: seal-all

I know it's impervious to gas because I've used it several times to "glue" rusty gas tanks back together.

Me too. The really neat part is that it will still set up when in contact with gas. A friends tank had a small rusted though spot. With the gas slowly dripping out on me I placed a blob of seal-all on my finger and pushed the seal-all into the leak and kept my finger in place until it started to set-up. I then gave it a second coat and finished by sanding around where the leak had been and covered the whole area with a two part epoxy putty. It never leaked again.

-Travis

 

[oldopelguy]

off topic, but

With 2 positive recomendations here, I added Seal-All to the product review page. Seemed like the kind of thing Gary had in mind for that page.