| Author |
Message |
    
Michael Blott
| | Posted on Saturday, 07 April, 2001 - 12:50: |    |
I have a silver cloud II 1961 I recently started it after it had sat for a few months.
Fuel squirted out of a tube under the car. The tube exited through a 1 1/2 inch hole in the under plating near the rear of the engine.
Any ideas? |
Martin Cutler
| | Posted on Saturday, 07 April, 2001 - 12:52: | |
Thats an easy one Michael!
One of the floats in the SU carburettors has "hung up", ie, the float is stuck, and can't close the valve. So the fuel pump keeps delivering without any method of saying "STOP".
On my SU carbs, there is a little "tickler" on the top of the fuel bowl, sort of like on pre war English motorbikes. You give them a "tickle", and the float should free itself and close the valve. If you get really carried away, you could clean out the bowl, and get rid of what ever bit or dirt was holding the float stuck.
Reminds me of a story about a Gold Star BSA rider, who after pulling up in front of the pub to show off his new beast, kicked away for quite some time, getting redder and redder in the face as the bike refused to start. He checked everything, as you do, but the bike refused to start. Some bright spark walked up, tickled the carburettor, and, hey presto, it burst into life on the next kick! Don't you need friends like that!
Martin |
Richard Treacy
| | Posted on Saturday, 07 April, 2001 - 12:54: | |
Martin is quite correct and this non-problem happens often with a cold motor. It occurs when the carb has dried out, usually after not being run for some time: some residue remains in the carburettor bowl and jams the float, so fuel pumps out of the overflow drain pipe onto the pavement. Give it a tickle and it's fine. If this is your greatest problem, you are the luckiest RR owner in the world !! |
Mernon Lollich
| | Posted on Saturday, 07 April, 2001 - 12:55: | |
I had the same problem on a '79 SWII, but it was a leaky float - it just filled up, sank, and stayed there! I rebuilt both carbs in a day for about $80(US) for the kit, which included new floats, seals, needles, etc. Much easier job than a Zenith or Stromberg, IMO. |
Martin Cutler
| | Posted on Saturday, 07 April, 2001 - 12:56: | |
Hi Mernon,
Reminds me of a mountain rally one year, David Neely was driving his Phantom II, and over night in Orange, it got pretty cold, the float in the vac tank cracked and sank, and we only discovered the problem after using the gallon of petrol in the vac tank - ie, just far enough out of town to be a real bugger! Used some 2 part petrol tank repair stuff to fix the float, but the hardest part was getting the petrol back out that had seeped in over night.
Ended up resorting to using a hair dryer to heat the air in the float, forcing the petrol out - it took ages! |
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