Joris Posted February 15, 2006 Share Posted February 15, 2006 I'm posting this here since my current problems are not related to a specific vehicle but apply to all vehicles. This sunday we had some problems with the Dodge, we thought we ran out of gas and when we refilled it it seemed as though the tank was dirty (brown petrol in the glas under the fuel pump) which in turn stopped the engine from running. The fuel filter was completely filled with dirt. To make matters worse, in the streaming rain the electrical system broke down when we switched on the lights again causing the engine to stall. The AA used all the tricks in the book to get us home, a jerrycan of fuel with a small pump injecting fuel into the carburator to bypass the fuel problem. And a bypass of the electrical system by connecting the battery directly to the bobine. Today I checked things out on the Dodge and we found out the following things: - After draining the gastank we removed over 45 liters of petrol and we only added 20 liters. This means the tank was never empty. - All the petrol from the tank was crystal clear, no polution and no difference in color - We checked the fuel line and blew the remaining petrol out without a problem - The dashboard lighting short circuited which made the lights malfunction So I fixed the dashboard lighting which made the lights shine again but I could not reproduce the complete failure of the electrical system when I switched on the lights (even with the short circuit still there). Questions: Was the rain enough to make the whole electrical system break down and thus stalling the engine with only the dashboard lighting short circuiting? With only clear fuel in the tank, how could the brownish fuel and the stuffed fuel filter happen and why could we not get any fuel out of the tank? I do hope somebody can help me solve this mistery.. Saturday I'm going to install a new fuel filter and test the fuelpump by making it suck fuel out of a jerrycan. I'm also going to fix the dashboardlighting but I'm not very keen on redoing the complete electrical system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
79x100 Posted February 15, 2006 Share Posted February 15, 2006 I'm not a Dodge man but an old vehicle is an old vehicle so you're welcome to my two pennyworth on the subject. Did you have a dead short on the electrics ? Normally that leads to a blown fuse or smoke. Have you checked your earths all round and for corrosion and water in the bulb holders and things. Don't forget it's not just rain at the moment but a salt solution - electrolyte. It could be that now it's dry, the fault is not apparent. I think your best advice in the first instance is to go round and clean all your earthing points and vulnerable places like bulb holders. On the fuel problem, the dirt must come from somewhere. Was it rust or not ? How old are your flexible fuel lines. Are they the correct material ? Old or rubber tube can start to flake inside and can collapse internally resulting in fuel starvation. You may well have tried all these in which case, good luck because intermittent faults are always the worst to rectify and the problem is often a combination of problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fv1609 Posted February 15, 2006 Share Posted February 15, 2006 Whatever faults you had with the lighting would not be related to the ignition failure. When I had a mini I used to get a lot of trouble with conking out in the rain as the coil was mounted close to the front grill. Did you try spraying some WD40 all over the ignition cables, distributor & coil, having first dried it off as much as you could with a cloth. Other thing to check is that the distributor cap is clean, once it gets grubby it allows moisture to track across. If you didn't know how much fuel there was, maybe some off it was quite old? I always thought with old fuel then it won't run very well I never knew the harm it could do. I had inadvertantly used some old (clean looking) fuel & ended up shattering an exhaust valve tappet on the pig. So watch out!. On the left is the broken tappet on the right an intact one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joris Posted February 16, 2006 Author Share Posted February 16, 2006 Thanks guys, very helpfull! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M8Greyhound Posted February 16, 2006 Share Posted February 16, 2006 WC ...check the bulkhead fuel strainer...a common place for rust to be incurred into the fuel system..... also check for evidence that the old armored fuel lines are not perishing inside and putting small amounts of rubber into the fuel system....i had that once on my WC52....a piece of rubber in the inlet to the carb restricting fuel flow and yes severe reain can drip between the hood and onto the main bulkhead junction block causing a short....but that sounds more like battery cables rubbing on the retaining clamp Hope this helps Regards Lloyd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.