VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1912-1928 idle but no go

Thanks Ray. I checked out that website and I can buy that stuff from a paint distributor in Cairns. I'll get some when I am next there. In the meantime I'll try the other suggestion I read about - putting blue metal gravel into the tank and agitating it. Got to figure a way of getting the tow chain out first!

Just be careful not to move too much weight inside the tank against the ends tooquickly as you make crack a seam or bend the fuel pickup

Regards

Ray

If you have a radiator repair shop in your area you can take your gas tank there (after you remove the chain) and have them put it in their hot tank. That will clean your tank nicely.

I suspect that the chain is caught on the fuel pickup line. If you can't dislodge it by shaking or tapping the end of the tank on a board or mat, then cutting a hole is warranted.

There is no fuel pick up line for the chain to catch on - just an opening flush with the inside of the tank. But all is OK - I eventually got the thing out. Had to cut it bit by bit, then reverse it and cut from the other end. The knots came undone after more vigorous shaking. Ruined my tow chain though.
This afternoon I will put new fuel in and hopefully drive it out of the shed. We'll see.

The car now runs!!!! Took it for a run around the paddock and out on the main road and it's going pretty well.
I put the fuel tank back on but on starting it idles better than before but still would not pick up. Coughed and stalled as soon as acceleration was applied. Huge disappointment.
Friend arrives to have a look. He's a bush mechanic with a bit of practical know how. He says it must be carburetor trouble so the carb is removed yet again and thoroughly cleaned. Spotless. Replaced on the car - same problem. My mate concludes that the car engine is getting enough fuel to idle but not to rev. Carburetor disassembled again.
It is noted that there is a small hole in the venturi body through which fuel in the float bowl passes to the main jet. This is checked again and found to be clean.
The carburetor is installed again and we find that it will run when the hole in the base of the float bowl is covered with a thumb, but not when the float bowl retaining nut is screwed in. We surmise that the old float bowl, probably from years of overtightening the soft brass, is concave and this, combined with the absence of a float bowl gasket has brought the thread on the retaining nut too high into the venturi where it has restricted fuel flow to the main jet.
Didn't have any fibre washers handy but a soft metal washer and a couple of plastic shim washers between the float bowl and the nut did the job (temporarily anyway).
Noticed that the base of the venturi is flat and wondered if there should be a fibre washer there between it and the float bowl to reduce the reach of the nut. There wasn't one there but should there be??

The late '27 (Carter RAJX-0) and '28 (RAKX-0) carburetors both have bowl stem gaskets. The fit between the bowl stem (where multijet and bowl nut screw in) and float bowl. It is Carter part number 41-10.

Is there a gasket between the nut and the bowl on the outside?

I think mine must be the earlier 1927 Capitol. The carburetor is a Carter RX-O.
There is a fibre washer on the outside of the float bowl. Fuel goes everywhere without that. I will put one on the inside to stop the concaving of the base of the float bowl. A metal washer should do as the fibre one will still seal the hole from the outside.
I notice on both the RX-O carburettors I have that there are two small holes in the stem near where the main jet fits. On both of them the top hole has been soldered or bronze filled. Why is that?

Just as I suspected; the carburetor.

aussiechev, I have been experiensing the same problems with coughing and sputtering and running only at full throttle from time to time, thinking it was the spark plugs. This time the cleaning did not help. after reading your thread I cut new thicker gaskests for the idle jet plug and the throttle jet plug to give more room between the plug and the jet for fule to flow through. Iseems to have solved the problem. Thanks for your good work.
Hutch

The hole is drilled to provide a passage from the center to the low speed jet. It is no longer needed after that so is filled.

Thanks Chipper, but I don't get it. Why was it drilled in the first place (ie at manufacture) only to be filled? Not that it matters I guess - it runs OK without it.

Yes it was drilled during the manufacturing process.