For 10 years, and 5,000 miles, my '32 Ford Cabriolet/ Chevy 350 has started and run without a problem after it's trickle-charged, winter's rest.  But it won't run this year. (I know, I'm late.)  I've sprayed Gumout around the linkages and choke.  Plenty of gas squirts into the carb when I operate the linkage, and the engine runs (mightily and smoky) for a couple seconds, but then it dies.  Could the Holly mechanical fuel pump or Fram fuel filter be gummed up?  It had a longer than usual rest this year.  I hate to pull it all apart unless I have to.  I'm hoping it's something simple that I'm not doing.  Any thoughts.  

Did you use a gas stabilizer when you parked it?  Since it's smoking, I would say you are running rich, so probably a stuck needle in the fuel bowl.  I would pull the plugs and check appearance.  Black sooty appearance indicates rich mixture.  Might as well throw in a new set of plugs while you have the old ones out.


Good Luck,

Kevin  

Thanks, Kevin

It's got stabilizer in it, and I know it's running rich, but the real problem is that, except for a couple seconds, I can't get it to start.  It burns the gas that squirted into the carb when I operated the linkage and then quits.

--  John  

I was assuming that the engine was flooding out after the initial fire-up, but it sounds like it's starving for fuel like you said after the initial fuel from the squirters burns up.  I guess you could remove the fuel line and crank the motor to test the fuel pump output, if that's ok, then you don't have much else to do but pull the carb.  Sorry I could not be of more help, I know you were looking for something silly you may be missing, but I can not think of anything off the top of my head.

Kevin