Monarchs are acceptable, but we draw the line at Rulers.

The Irish have a proverb:
"God protects children, fools, and drunks."
The last of those is why the Irish aren't extinct. (Hey, it's their proverb.)
I count myself squarely in that middle category.

Last night I posted about the tiny clip that went flying, lost forever in the rug under the dining room table. Someone named "anonymous" suggested in a comment to that post that I "sweep" the rug with a magnet. When I saw that this morning I said to myself, "Ha! What a great idea!" and got one of my 1"x2" magnets from the garage. Ten minutes later that clip was back in hand. Thank you, anonymous!

Oh, and just so you know I wasn't kidding about it being small:

The round piece is the washer that goes between a spring and that e-clip.
Because I was up at 3 a.m. I have, in true ADD fashion, been going back and forth between several projects all day. Once the wayward clip was back in the fold I could resume reassembly of the carb. At 7 a.m. local time I called The Carburetor Shop in Missouri because he was just opening (9 a.m. there). He's an interesting guy who sounds like he's well into his senior years. My reason for calling - I have no confidence in my carb rebuilding abilities, especially when I don't have instructions (his kits presume you know) and when the pieces sat on the table for 5 days. I don't remember how everything came apart.

The bad news? He does not have any of these carbs in stock, will never have any in stock, and will not rebuild one if it's sent to him. The Holley Model 1931 is a piece of junk and not worth his time or effort.  It will leak onto the intake manifold. Guaranteed. And the only option is a Carter carburetor that is even worse, so cheaply made that it can't be rebuilt.

My first thought was, "Thank you, anonymous!" Without that clip I can't assemble the power pump, a key internal component of the carb. My second thought was, "I'm in over my head rebuilding this thing and it now looks like I'm on my own with NO safety net if I get it wrong."

I had an 8:15 dr. appointment this morning. I came home and did some more assembly. Then I worked on the music for Sunday's worship service, including hunting for new songs and making the slide presentation. Then I took the assembled carb out and installed it on the car. Then I came back in and worked on my sermon. Then I went up to Home Depot to get a new cotter pin to attach the linkage.
The point? I was stressed about this and could only work on it in small segments. In his book, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," Robert Persig says you need to be in the right frame of mind to work on your bike. Calm. Free of stress and worry, which are the enemy of successful wrenching. I find that to be true in spades when working on a '66 Rambler. Work on it until you feel the tension rising and then walk away. Do something else, clear your head of what could (will?) go wrong, and only come back when you're ready.

Full disclosure: I didn't go back when I was free of stress. I went back when the stress had dropped off enough that I wasn't a mumbling idiot. The closer I got to the crucial step - start up - the less time it took for the stress to return to paralyzing levels.

At 1:30 there was no point putting it off. I reattached the negative battery cable and cranked the engine long enough to get fuel up into the new filter and from thence into the carb. Then I primed the thing with a small splash of gasoline down its throat and cranked it again.
It started, and died. Pump, pump, pump the gas pedal. It started again, stumbled, and died. Pump, pump, pump the gas pedal. It started...and stayed running!

I shut it off pretty quickly. Because I replaced the radiator and all hoses there's no coolant in it. It will run poorly until I can get the choke, mixture screw and slow/fast idle screws adjusted properly, a process that can only happen once it's up to temp, which means it has to have coolant. The point is, it runs!

I talk to two people throughout my day. One of them is now in Michigan visiting her mother. But even when she's in AZ and not with me I talk to her. I've been known to call her at work to tell her I've been talking to her.
I don't care if it sounds very un-macho (is there an antonym?), I was very stressed out about this. A lot of it is my personality, but there are also budget issues at stake here if I can't get the carb to work. So when it started I came inside and called Pam to tell her about it. Yeah, it was emotional. I needed to share with her the tension and its release.

The other One I talk to... oh, He's been hearing about this project all along. And those of you who have been in a church I've pastored know what came out of my mouth, audibly, as soon as the car started and ran.

In my best Carl Christerson accent...
T'ank you, Fadder.