At 04:38 PM 8/15/01 -0700, Kevin Brown wrote:
>I have a 71 TR6 with Zenith Stromberg carburetors which I can't get
>started for the life of me.....
>I tried to start it, and the starter went to town, good
>and strong, but it wouldn't catch or even begin to catch.
>OK, so I cleaned all the contacts on the coil, and checked for spark on
>each of the plugs by pulling them one by one and sitting them next to
>the engine block while turning the key. Each one gave me spark
>(although not super strong or violent.) So that seems OK. From the
>list wisdom I've seen so far, I believe that should point me towards a
>fuel problem.
>I moved over to the carbs and adjusted the oil level in the dashpots,
>and made sure the pistons etc, were not frozen up. In a posting I read
>somewhere, the author suggested that you could check the float bowls to
>ensure they were full of fuel or possibly even pour fuel into the carb.
>I don't see how to do this. Even with the air filter off, and the
>piston raised, I couldn't see down into the float bowl. Are you
>supposed to take the bowl off? That seems like a fairly drastic method
>just to see if fuel is getting into the carb. Is there a better
>method? Or perhaps I'm going in the wrong direction.
Kevin,
I have this problem with my Morgan every spring when I go to that her
out. My problem is fuel related, but more on that in a minute.
Lets start with what you've done. Are you sure that you got the plug
wires back in the right order. You said you replace the plug wire and
the dist. cap. A very common mistake many novices make is the cross the
plug wires when they do this job. You will need to find a book on the 6,
I don't have one, and make sure that your plug wires are in the right
connector to the dist. cap. If that checks out then I think you might
be right with the fuel problem.
A good bet is that your needle valve is stuck in the closed position.
A couple of things to try. Try spraying some starting ether in the
throat of the carb and try to start it. If she fires, and dies, then
it is definately a fuel problem.
Next take the handle of a "goodly" sized screwdriver and hit the float
bowl on the carb several times. This will usually dislodge the needle
valve.
>One more question. The fuel in my tank is probably 2 years old at this
>point. Does anyone know if that's old enough for it to have gone bad?
Most definately! When my Morgan sits, even with stable added in the tank,
it goes bad over the winter. Sometimes she will light, but runs very
poorly. Sometimes she won't even fire. I usually end up draining the
tank, and flushing the system.
>If so, what should I do? I saw in the gasoline FAQ that mixing the old
>fuel with twice as much new fuel might fix things but that's kind of
>difficult in my driveway.
Fortunately, I have a drain plug in the tank of my Morgan so draining it
is easy. If you don't have a drain, you'll have to syphon it out into
many buckets / milk jugs, anything. Then run to the gas station and get
at least 4 gal. of "new" gas and pour it in the tank. You might want to
disconnect the fuel line from the carb and pump some of the new fuel
through the lines. This will also tell you if your pump is working.
Hope this helps.
John
John T. Blair WA4OHZ email: jblair@exis.net
Va. Beach, Va Phone: (757) 495-8229
48 TR1800 48 #4 Midget 65 Morgan 4/4 Series V
75 Bricklin SV1 77 Spitfire 71 Saab Sonett III
65 Rambler Classic
Morgan: www.team.net/www/morgan
Bricklin: www.bricklin.org
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