Fuel starvation (403)

peterg · #1 (**permalink**) 03-07-11, 10:02 PM

Things have gone from bad to worse.

Going to the Bristol evening at the Ace Cafe it gave out in heavy traffic at West Ealing. Again going slowly up hill. Eventually got it going after lots of cranking, manual priming of the fuel pump and lots of false starts. No problems on the way home.

The following Tuesday, just south of Dorking, going up a dual carriageway hill at 60 mph I put my foot down to get past a RAV4 and the engine faltered. Eased back and managed to hold 50 mph but again heavy traffic outside Horsham saw it give up. Once more priming and cranking got it going for a couple of hundred yards, twice, before finally giving up the ghost.

Now to the questions:

How full should the pump bowl be? It fills on priming with lots of bubbles but the level drops back down to the gauze.

It was suggested that the pipes in the fuel tank were perforated but they seem fine. Can the reserve pipe solenoid be overhauled? Should it? I am told that it will pick up the sludge from the bottom of the tank.

Can anyone recommend a good coil & condenser? I left the ignition on while trickle charging for 5 days. It was rather hot when I checked it this evening and I am guessing it may have burnt out.

Woe, woe and thrice woe.....

HughMiller · #2 (**permalink**) 04-07-11, 08:29 PM

Apologies is this is a horribly basic and obvious comment, but I don't think there should be bubbles in the fuel pump. I got that on mine when the seal around the glass dome started leaking, so the pump was partly sucking from the surrounding atmosphere, not the fuel line. Holes in the diaphragm would give the same effect.
Hugh Miller

peterg · #3 (**permalink**) 05-07-11, 08:22 PM

Apologies not needed. I just want to solve the problem. Could the 'petrol' be eating the seal? It has done the most appalling things to the tank sealer on my motorcycle, causing no end of bad running and blockages in the carb.

Roll on 10% ethanol!

Michael English · #4 (**permalink**) 03-08-11, 04:00 PM

Have just bought a 401 at auction. Misfire & acts like fuel starvation. Replaced distributor, rotor, condenser, spark plugs ... no change. Replaced leads & caps and was great for a few miles but now at over about 45mph feels like fuel starvation too.

My pump has dirty looking fuel (my Redex?) well up the glass bowl.

I had not thought of changing the coil nor of looking in the carbs ... fuel squirts down the barrels very nicely on my driveway anyway. I have the patience for all this, but do I have the time? Aaaaaargh.

peterg · #5 (**permalink**) 09-08-11, 05:43 PM

I think that I have found the cause of my problem. The solder on the ferrule of the inlet to the fuel pump had failed. Just resoldered it and will refit next week.

Found it when I took off the fuel pump and cleaned it out. An easy job to do. Got a repair kit from Teesdale Garage in Nottingham.

Next job is to reassemble the reserve solenoid unit. I don't think it is worth the £200 to overhaul it. I want to lengthen the short pick up pipe to match the reserve but the plumbers merchant says brass is difficult to solder to copper. Does any one have experience of this? Are there alternative ways?

Is there an recommendation for fitting a fuel filter in the flexible pipe up to the pump or will the standard in line plastic jobbie do?

Peter

Michael English · #6 (**permalink**) 10-08-11, 11:14 AM

Very interesting. For my 401 I'd like to start with a quick overhaul of my AC fuel pump, but before I even open the glass bowl would like to have all the gaskets in my hand. I have a Bristol workshop parts list but that only gives Bristol part numbers. It is an AC pump but it seems I need to know more before getting parts, ie is it a model U or P or F or somesuch. Does anyone happen to know which model it is & where I might get the gaskets from (I'm in Somerset). I don't seem ablew to make out its model by looking at it, and prefer not to take it off for a closer inspection ... but may have to of course.

HughMiller · #7 (**permalink**) 10-08-11, 04:38 PM

Inracing in Nottingham does a repair kit for the Bristol fuel pump (along with a wonderful - or frightening, depending on your finances - range of other engine parts) at https://www.inracing.co.uk/RACING_CA..._Engine_Parts/.
Mine came with a variety of gaskets and sealing rings which included ones to fit my 100 series engine OK.
The kit is fairly cheap, but the postage is expensive.
Hugh

dkleeman · #8 (**permalink**) 01-01-12, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peterg

Next job is to reassemble the reserve solenoid unit. I don't think it is worth the £200 to overhaul it.

What are the options for reconditioning or buying the reserve solenoid unit?

Daniel

Michael English · #9 (**permalink**) 03-01-12, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dkleeman

What are the options for reconditioning or buying the reserve solenoid unit?

Daniel

In my case the original cleaned up, but it looked very delicate hair thin wiring inside the solenoid, so frightened me. As an option to fixing it properly I'd think you could take the power wire for when the solenoid is engaged and connect it to a modern electric fuel pump, but when you look at the parts that would seem a very messy solution. Frankly, I think it best to pay the £200 suggestion for a proper repair or modify the pipework to eliminate the damaged solenoid and to ensure that fuel is drawn always from the lower 'reserve' level instead of the standard higher level. After all, few if any modern cars have a reserve fuel system.

If you want to keep the reserve, then perhaps look to a manual tap system such as used on all older motorcycles, and indeed on the Goggomobil I once owned!