Ferret Running very rough.

[robin craig]

Sorry for the delay in posting a follow up on this one.

 

Mate Gerry and I made the 3 hour trip down to get Al's vehicle to run just over a week ago.

 

We proved the basic spark, then moved to proving fuel.

 

We found that there was fuel at the carb banjo bolt but not what you would call a strong flow. The top plate was removed from the carb and the needle and floats were proven. Then we filled the carb with fuel and fired it up and it ran and consumed the fuel. So we bolted the inlet supply banjo bolt back on and repeated the test and it fired but spluttered and died fairly quickly.

 

This sent us down the road of fuel supply. We knew that the problem as upstream of the carb. As the vehicle has a lot of kit in it we decided that the possible causes were as follows:-

 

- fuel pump starting to fail

- fuel tap blocked partially

- fuel line blocked partially

- banjo bolt at the bottom of the fuel tank partially blocked

 

As the simplest test was to change the fuel selector tap over that is what we did. We Then went back to the carb banjo bolt and took that off and gave it a nano second cranking. A hugely increased difference in the volume of fuel delivered.

 

So that eliminated the fuel pump right off the bat.

 

As our mission was to make it run, and we proved that by now securing the banjo bolt we stopped messing around. Our pragmatism is that we did not have materials with us to rebuild the selector tap nor did we have the time to drain the fuel tank and remove the banjo bolts and clean the lines and seal it all back up, especially if the tank needed removal.

 

As there was another mechanical issue to be addressed we sorted that and then started the vehicle again and took it out for a test drive.

 

We had it running for over 20 minutes zipping up and down the street between the stop sign and the turning circle and the engine didnt lack for power at all.

 

We have resolved that it is most likely the right side part of the tank and over the winter we will go back down with the intent of taking all the fuel out of the tank and removing the banjo bolts from underneath and by stealth rinse both sides of the tank with fuel rather than have to remove the tank. At the same time we will modify the banjo bolts with some stems to raise the pick up point a little bit and put new crush washers on and re attach everything. This is the most practical solution.

 

Thanks for all the tips guys and gals.

 

Robin