Jim Schings, SR Racing, February 2010

The things required to get you ready for the first race after long term storage depend a bit upon what you did to store it in the first place. So, let me tell you what we recommend for long term storage and why.

• Drain the fuel cell. (Or if not easily done, fill it to the top.) One or the other is recommended by the Fuel Cell manufactures. This prevents the volatile compounds from evaporating and deteriorating the cell.
• Pump the carb throttle to empty ALL of the fuel from it. One of the biggest problems with long term storage is the nasty debris that will be left over in all the jets and throttle pump after fuel evaporation.
• Crank the engine with the throttle open and squirt some WD-40 in it. This keeps the interior of the intake manifold from rusting. (and they rust up fast)
• We usually loosen the rocker arm shafts to relieve the valve springs. Otherwise one or more springs will be fully compressed for the full storage term, causing a degradation in the spring rate at height.
• Keep a “Battery Tender” on it for the full storage period. They are trickle chargers that automatically shut off and on as needed to keep the battery at a float level. Keeping you battery at a float level will give you several years of use. Letting one drop to below 70% or 80% and then storing that way, vastly decreases its life due to sulfation.

So, if that or more is what you did to store it, bringing it out of storage will be easy.

• Tighten your rocker assemblies and adjust valve lash.
• Crank the engine without ignition until you read some oil pressure. Five pounds is plenty.
• Fill the fuel tank if emptied. (See above)
• Apply ignition and start it up. Let it idle for a while. Getting the oil temp up will make for an easier drain and will remove much of the humidity.
• Drain the oil and change the filter.
• Typically if you do a tune-up at the beginning of the season, do that now.
• Changing brake fluid, bleeding brakes and adjusting would be the next suggestion. Note that you will probably have some rust on the interior of the drums. It will come off pretty quickly. But before adjusting your brake shoes, you should drag the brakes a little and spin each of the wheels to clean them up.
• Regarding the step above, now would be a good time to grease front wheel bearings. If so, you will have your drums off so it will be easy to check the brake linings and lightly sandpaper the rust off the drums. Don’t adjust your brakes until after you have adjusted the wheel bearings.
• Depending upon how much time you have on the transaxle fluid you might want to change it now.
• Changing the fuel filter would also be in order.

Actually other than the normal alignment, bolt checks etc. that is all you will really have to do. Also do the same checks that the tech guys are going to do. Rain light working? Positive cable battery leads shielded correctly, etc.

However, you MIGHT have problems.

• It cranks, but won’t idle or start: More than likely evaporated fuel debris is in the carb internals. Does the throttle pump put a good squirt of fuel in the carb when you pump it? If not, you aren’t getting fuel to the carb, or one of the check balls in the carb throttle pump is stuck. You may have to remove the cover from the throttle pump and clean it out with carb cleaner. Also the fuel pump can go bad after sitting for a long term since that is when the rubber pumps get hard and brittle.
• If it’s an idle issue, you may be able to clear the passages in this way: Rev the engine up to a few thousand RPM and then immediately fully cover the carb intake with your hand, stalling the car. The heavy vacuum will often clear the orifices. If that doesn’t work you may end up having to open the carb up and start cleaning. Neither one of the above issues is typically a problem IF you did step 2 above when preparing for storage.
• If you have a cranking problem it probably is the battery, but other possibilities are:
  • A internally corroded master kill switch. Turn it on and off several times. This will wipe the contacts.
  • A defective starter bushing in the transaxle. This ALWAYS acts like a weak battery.
  • Any loose battery to starter motor connections, etc.

If you are still having a problem, give us a call, we can walk you through it on the phone and get you going. Next year, if you follow all the proper storing steps you probably won’t have any problems.

SR Racing, 100 Mercer Ct. Suite 120, Lexington KY, 40511, sracing@mindpring.com 859-252-2496.
Visit Jim at SRracing.com.