Don't you just love 'em though!!... The vans that is. I wish I could give some useful suggestions.. "Best of Luck" is as good as you'll get from me
You only loosened that nut and a dribble appeared. I wouldn't assume the float bowl is full, you should have a look. When I did mine I found there was always a small amount of fuel in the bottom of the float bowl but not enough to fire up the engine. Non starting is a very common issue and in my experience over the years, you shouldn't assume anything, you have to check fuel and ignition for faults. On mine I found both fuel and ignition problems and ended up renewing it all, now works a dream.
Not so much a whack, but a good few harsh taps with the end of my screwdriver. Still nothing unfortunately. The worst thing is I'm sure it's probably something dead simple... after all, it was working just fine Saturday night and Sunday afternoon of last weekend... stuck £30 of petrol in and probably drove about 50 miles over the 2 journeys. Parked up on the drive when I got back Sunday afternoon, left it 6 days until yesterday when I went to start it... it started, I reversed about 3 yards, it died, spluttered when I attempted to restart it, and from then onwards has done nothing other than turn over. Oh and POP!! loudly last night .
Fair enough. I'll remove it tomorrow night and see if it is just a residual dribble or if the carb is full. Just out of interest, to stop fuel leaking all over my engine, ideally I'll shove a pot underneath to catch it ( and have a look at it to see if there is rust, crud, worms, Shergar, Lord Lucan & the lost tribe of the Incas floating around inside) but it would be much easier without all the leads and pipework in the way... so a little aside question: if I remove my HT leads and mess them up, how do I know the order to put them back on... I've been scared to remove them thus far, but I assume there is a diagram somewhere of the firing order. The dizzy is a vac advance and doesn't seem to have a notch.
Before you take carb off, remove the rubber air filter neck from top of carb, pour a cup (wd40 lid eg) of fuel into the carb then try starting.
Aaah this is a good thing to know Mr Davidoft, you are a gentleman and a scholar .....and sadly a good hour away, but much appreciated. Thank you.
At this stage you don't need to remove the carb. I suggested only removing the lid to look inside the float bowl for fuel. Its very simple to do and you will see the little brass needle valve in the lid, the needle should go up and down without sticking, and the hinged float sitting in the bowl.
Re the leads, rotate your crank pully until TDC lines up with the case flange, pop off your dizzy cap and look where the arm is pointing that's cylinder 1. Firing order is 1-4-3-2 as stamped on the engine just below the generator. Cylinder 1 is towards the front on the right, 2 on the right towards the back, 3 to the front left 4 to the rear left, all as you look at them from the engine hatch.
I've done this a few times when it wont start or squirted easy start down the carb its generally done the trick and dislodged any crud that may be in there if nothing else it should run for a few seconds at least ?
Just a thought , throttle cable hasn't snapped. Supermarket petrol kills mine , have you taken out the Idle jet as mentioned before
To be honest, apart from loosening the drain bolt to see if there was petrol in the carb, I haven't done any tinkering with it yet.... work gets in the way unfortunately, so if I manage to get home at a sensible hour tonight (maybe even a small amount of daylight?) I'll whip the top off the carb and have a look at the float needles etc, pour a thimble full of fuel directly in, and go from there. I admit I hadn't considered the throttle cable, I check that too.
Trick to check for fuel starvation i once saw an AA man do....take off air filter, get someone to turn the engine over whilst you squirt wd40 into the carb......if it tries to run then you have a blockage somewhere in the fuel system.
take all four plugs out, refit the leads, rest the plugs on the cylinder tin, crank it over and ensure each is sparking white/purple... if so, pour a small amount of fuel down each plug hole (about 20mls) refit the plugs press the throttle down fully...don't pump it...let the pedal up then leave it crank it over if it starts and idles, just let it do what it wants.....if it runs for a few seconds then dies, remove the idle jet (side of carb) and blow thru it... replace and try again if it now runs OK, take it for a good blast if it doesn't, it sounds like mgbman suggested...stuck needle valve (assuming all else is in place...timing, valves, vac line, fuel cut off valve etc.)
Home late, dark outside, and I'm knackered Thanks for all the suggestions and help, but I think I'm gonna have to leave it til tomorrow and hope for an early finish in daylight...
I would look for fuel in the carb float bowl first. If its empty you could put some fuel in the bowl and try starting it. Let us know what you find.
