Saturday we went on a 100 mile tour in the 26 roadster which has a Holly NH carburetor. We took it to Death Valley in April and it ran just fine for the whole week. It rained on the way home and the car was on an open trailer and got very dirty. I just parked it and it set without running since April. Saturday, I turned on the gas and it started dripping. I tapped on the side of the carburetor and it stopped dripping. I took it on the tour. It did some strange things. The needle valve had to be set 1/2 turn leaner than usual. Going down hill it backfired through the exhaust, and it wouldn't idle very well. If I adjusted the needle for a smooth idle, it didn't run well at crusing, and when it was parked and I started it again it ran rich.
Anyway we made it the whole 100 miles and after I got home, I took off the float bowl and found that whoever rebuilt this carburetor must have painted the inside, or maybe it was dried gasoline on the inside? Anyway there was partially disolved gunk on the inside of the float bowl. I cleaned it off and put the bowl back on and it ran as usual with the needle adjusted as usual and idled at the same adjustment as crusing.
I posted this because there have been recent posts about a similar problem and it may have been the same problem. It might not have been paint, maybe some residue in dried gasoline.
Norm
Norman, I believe it was the gasoline. I had something similar happen to my Model A and cleaning the gunk out of the carburetor bowl straightened up everything....Michael Pawelek
Also a possible cause of the problem, was at stovepipe wells there was a no name gas station, and that was the last gas I put into the T until this trip. Never had that problem with this car before.
Norm