Part 3 - Toil begins, enter Barnes Wallis

I spend lots of time at Ernesto's over the next few weeks - There is no heating at his shop so its colder than a witches tit, - progress is slow. When you start the car it runs like morse code. dot - dash - dot - dot - dash. It just wont KEEP running.
We go through lots of things..... Carbs come off, torn down, re furbed, put back on ( did I tell you I hate Strombergs?) We find a hairline crack in the inlet manifold.... a set of manifolds later and..... still not running properly - the fuel pump comes on, fills the fuel bowl the car starts, but it stops also!!!!!
Barnes Wallis is alive and well in Connecticut
Finally one day we remove the tank, go through every component. I blow compressed air from the carb end back to the tank, it makes a sound like someone with a hernia playing a tennor sax....... right in the middle of the fuel line is a lump of rust, with a piece of gunk behind it......when the fuel pump is on the gunk moves out of the way, as soon as it stops because the bowl is full, its settles nicley down. When the car starts the carbs draw fuel and pull it back onto the rust creating a check valve. Bingo - the morse code mystery is solved..........
We put it back together and its running.... at last now to sort out the brakes, the electrics etc etc.