Starting Issue / Question

I recently bought a '66 CJ5 with the Dauntless V-6. With 33,000 on the clock it runs like a top. However, if I let it sit for a week or so it will not fire up unless I give it a squirt of starting fluid. After that, it starts on the first spin.

Any thought as to what is happening while it sits and what I might do to fix this issue?

Just FYI if it means anything more than a minor adjustment, I'll keep squirting it.

 

The fuel is evaporating or leaking out of the fuel bowl. Usually I have to crank mine for a while then give it full choke to get it to fire if it has been sitting for a week or 2. I'm assuming yours has the Rochester 2g.

 

Back "in the day" it was normal practice to pump the gas pedal before cranking.

This did two things... it set the automatic choke, and it squirted raw gas into the manifold.

Modern drivers may not have learned this.

 

"Just FYI if it means anything more than a minor adjustment, I'll keep squirting it"

With that viewpoint you won't last long with driving old iron like this.

As Pete said, pump the pedal a few times before cranking. It that don't do it, you may need to find someone to look at the carburetor.

 

I’m used to starting old vehicles, but picked up a little extra wisdom on here recently.

Before pumping the gas pedal, crank for a few seconds. Stop, pump once or twice beat to hold pedal if setting a manual coke cable, then recrank. This allows a form of priming the oil surfaces as well as the fuel bowl before using what is usually the last fuel in your accelerator pump before everything refills.

Also worth noting my dauntless floods easily cranking with the choke on. Something to make sure isn’t happening while having issues. Mine was also horribly temperamental trying to start without a choke cable, and flat refused a cold start without propping the choke butterfly.

 

And likely the old iron won't last long.

 

Modern alcohol infused fuels evaporate a lot faster. Depending on the carburetor, the float bowls can evaporate to empty in a few days.

The Edelbrock (Carter AFB) carb on my '71 is terrible for this. If it sits for more than three days, you need to crank it for a while to fill the carb back up. The 2G carbs on the V6 jeeps don't seem to evaporate the fuel nearly as fast. They can sit for a couple of weeks with no issues.

 

I just meant I don't want to do major surgery to fix a minor problem. This Jeep is relatively new compared to my '49 John Deere. ;-)

 

Very common issue with the Dauntless and the factory Rochester 2G.
Some of us use a low pressure electric fuel pump assist to help prime the carburetor. (Check the forum for threads)
I use the choke always when Jeep is cold, starts up right away. Old Jeeps definitely like to be run, at least once a week if possible.

 

Fuel injection?

 

I would suspect a problem with the fuel pump loosing prime and draining back like the valves arnt working well enough. Or it might not be pumping enough all together then it will be especially hard to get going when dry. Next time after it sits pull the line off the carb and see how well it pumps at startup. My v6 always starts right up even after sitting a long time. And thats saying alot because I certainly dont do much to maintain it. I dont think I ever touched the pump it might even be original.

 

A fuel check valve between the engine pump and carb cured the problem on my 226 Super Hurricane.