Hi all, recently did a top end rebuild on my engine and put it back in this evening. I quickly chucked the fuel pipe on and connected up the electrics to give her a quick try before I fitted up everything else (in case it had to come back out again). Anyway, good news - she started and idled, lovely. My helpful neighbour was checking nothing alarming happened with the engine when she started and he noticed the carb was gurgling when I switched her off, sounded like fuel was being syphoned into the chamber. It didn't sound like it was stopping so I popped a clamp on the fuel hose and a short time later it stopped. Any ideas what is going on? Some useful facts are; it's a type one engine, I remembered to put oil in, the back of the bus is raised 7 or 8 inches, the generator light was flickering at me, neighbour said it was running very rich (he used to be a mechanic), I haven't fiddled with the carb since it came off the engine - it stayed on the manifold. I did a search on here (which usually answers my queries before I ask them) and spotted that boiling fuel can cause gurgling but I only ran it for 1 minute or so. Also sticky float valve but I can't see what would have caused that in the week or so it's been sat in bus. It had got dark by the time all this happened so I'll have a proper look tomorrow, all theories appreciated.
my type 4 engine gurgled like yours after switching off even with a pressure regulater fitted , also started leaking fuel out of the side of the carb near the connecting link on a solex twin carb but only on one side , worse on full tank , work was done on it to find the problem without success . so ended up fitting a fuel shut off valve on the fuel line just after the filter .turn the ignition off shuts the fuel off to the carb end of problem and a safe system , and nt to expensive .
Thanks Faust. After all that, it wouldn't do it this morning. I suppose it was the switch it off and on again fix! Can't get it to idle properly now though, even after switching it off and on again, oh well, such are the joys of bus ownership...
Perhaps you float valve is sticking or got muck in it and it's pouring too much petrol in to idle. Also explains the gurgling.
Thanks so much for your input guys. The problem was rather unexpected, I took the carb off to find the float valve...floating. It was not in it's hinge slot to the side, just loose in the float chamber - it is impossible for it to come out with the top on so I must have put it together like that when I took it apart last time...500 miles ago! How did it get that far like that!!!!!? I was chuffed to find 'the problem' so put it all back to find...really bad running and wouldn't idle. After a very frustrating afternoon I eventually found that the coil to distributor HT lead wasn't quite home on the coil. It arced across, possibly intermittently so I was getting a spark at the plugs when I checked that but not good enough to keep it running. Once it was engaged properly I could get it idling to fine tune the timing (which wasn't very close). I usually post a 'what happened' so people searching the forum in the future might get some tips but this time I think it's just going to get me nominated for some sort of stupidity award. Anyway, the bus is driving again and sounding better than she ever has, so I'm having a celebration cup of tea. P.S my fuel economy should see an improvement now, eh?
