I have just driven to and from the 2nd European Healey Meeting in St Moritz.
(1500 miles)This was a fantastic event and I will post pictures on my site.
Re the fuel problem. I have a BN4, with an after market Walbro bellows pump,
with in line filter joined by rubber lines and jubilee clips.
The carbs have been perfectly set and the engine is running like a turbine.
After about 150 miles the pump made a noise of sucking air (clattering) but
delevered enough fuel for me to drive normally. I stopped, checked the lines,
and filled up with fuel. (Note the tank was about a third full) The problem
seemed cured. This happened twice more, but I got to St Moritz and it wasnt
clattering.
During tuesdays rallye, the clattering re-appeared when tank less than half
full, we carried on , then filled up. When we filled up the problem went away.
We thought maybe it was a problem with the tube in the tank pick up. I decided
to keep the tank always over half full.
On thursdays rallye the clattering re-appeared early on when tank was three
quarters full.I drove hard and a long way like this. Eventually the car cut out
and I coasted to a stop. I checked evrything including tightening the nut that
attaches the fuel line to the tank. This appeared to do the trick and we
carried on to the end, no problems.
Driving home on saturday, it was a hot day, I dove hard over the Julier pass
and then on autoroute at 3500rpm. Without warning of the clattering the car cut
out again. I could not get it going and there was no action from the pump which
I thought had given up after the work it had done on thursday. I got the Swiss
auto service to come out hoping he'd rig up some kind of spare pump.
Of course he said hit it with a hammer. I told him it wasnt a Lucas pump and Id
never had to do it in seven years. ( incredibly and embarassingly I hadnt tried
this!!!!)... of course when he tapped it with one of my spanners, it worked. We
then discussed the problems that I had been having. I told him of rushing air
when I released the cap for re-fuelling. We decided there was a vacum being
created and when we checked the tank it was slightly buckled. The filler cap is
a replacement type. We drilled a hole
in it and I then carried on.
One last thing happened, after about 50 miles of fastish driving in high
temperature, it nearly cut out again just as I was entering Zurich. I backed
off and it got to a garage I filled up as It was less than half full. I then
drove all the way to Paris, 300 miles at about 3000 rpm never letting the tank
go below half full. There was no further problems and definitely no clattering.
This is a long story but here's the questions.
Did I have one problem caused by the vacumn or did I have several related
problems? In hind sight I was not really fixing the problem when I thought I
was, filling up and letting air back into the system was probably doing
this.Altough when I tightened the tank screw I did not fill up at that time yet
the problem appeared cured.
I have not yet had chance to test at over 3000 rpm with less than half a tank.
This may be irrelevant, but I will try.
I think the problem has probably been fixed by drilling the cap but the only
thing I dont understand is why it nearly cut out just once AFTER we drilled the
hole..maybe just very hot and some vaporisation?
Anyway.... any thoughts and ideas on this would be appreciated
BTW.... lister, Magnus Karlsson prepared the car that won best in show.
Derek
www.healeysix.net
Check out the new British Cars Forum:
http://www.team.net/the-local/tiki-view_forum.php?forumId=8
|