mark in new jersey
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2011
- Messages
- 167
I haven't posted in ages, but some of you may recall my many posts last fall & earlier this spring about my ground>>>up restoration of a '53 15HP Super Fastwin.
This might get long....I'll try not to ramble
It's "done", so today I went to the store and bought a tank & a hose. Mounted the engine in the doorframe of the garage, mixed up some fuel, hooked everything up and.....
...problems.
First of all, the fuel line that I got seems to have a defective connector on 1 end: it leaks like a sieve at the engine connector when I pump the primer ball. Reversing the hose moves the leak to the tank. So that's problem #1, but that's easily solved.
So....by holding the connector tightly in place, and with a rag wrapped around it, I could pump the ball enough to send fuel up the fuel lines, through my retro-fitted fuel pump, out of the pump and into the carb enough to "fill the carb" so that a pull of the rope yielded "LIFE"!!!!
Yes...it ran! For about 5 seconds.
So I've got spark, compression, air.....but it would appear that I don't have sustainable fuel flow.
After 2 hours of messing with it, and with the nuisance leak from the fuel connector, I abandoned today's efforts to make it run. Since then, I've been playing it over & over & over in my head, and I can only come to the following ideas:
> I don't believe the fuel pump is pumping.
> I messed up my fuel pump retrofit.
> This fuel pump is wrong (too big) for my 15HP engine & requires operative pressures found only on larger HP engines.
So: here's my pump (which was recommended to me), and how I plumbed it in. It's pretty big, all things considered, and there's so little room under the cowling that this was about as good as I could plumb everything in. The connections are all hose, but the runs are steel brake line. If this is no good, let me know.....
Here's the deal, though, and I just can't shake it: what's so "wrong" with a 2-hose fuel system in the first place? I have a really good mind to rip all this stuff off and go back to a 2-hose system. Tanks, hoses & fittings can be found on eBay, and I'm betting that......configured accordingly....this old engine would fire right up.
That's my story & I'm sticking to it.
Where's my problem? What am I missing?
mn
This might get long....I'll try not to ramble
It's "done", so today I went to the store and bought a tank & a hose. Mounted the engine in the doorframe of the garage, mixed up some fuel, hooked everything up and.....
...problems.
First of all, the fuel line that I got seems to have a defective connector on 1 end: it leaks like a sieve at the engine connector when I pump the primer ball. Reversing the hose moves the leak to the tank. So that's problem #1, but that's easily solved.
So....by holding the connector tightly in place, and with a rag wrapped around it, I could pump the ball enough to send fuel up the fuel lines, through my retro-fitted fuel pump, out of the pump and into the carb enough to "fill the carb" so that a pull of the rope yielded "LIFE"!!!!
Yes...it ran! For about 5 seconds.
So I've got spark, compression, air.....but it would appear that I don't have sustainable fuel flow.
After 2 hours of messing with it, and with the nuisance leak from the fuel connector, I abandoned today's efforts to make it run. Since then, I've been playing it over & over & over in my head, and I can only come to the following ideas:
> I don't believe the fuel pump is pumping.
> I messed up my fuel pump retrofit.
> This fuel pump is wrong (too big) for my 15HP engine & requires operative pressures found only on larger HP engines.
So: here's my pump (which was recommended to me), and how I plumbed it in. It's pretty big, all things considered, and there's so little room under the cowling that this was about as good as I could plumb everything in. The connections are all hose, but the runs are steel brake line. If this is no good, let me know.....
Here's the deal, though, and I just can't shake it: what's so "wrong" with a 2-hose fuel system in the first place? I have a really good mind to rip all this stuff off and go back to a 2-hose system. Tanks, hoses & fittings can be found on eBay, and I'm betting that......configured accordingly....this old engine would fire right up.
That's my story & I'm sticking to it.
Where's my problem? What am I missing?
mn
