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Carburator draining

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J

Joe_Pinehill

Jedi Hopeful
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I have a 78 Spitfire with a single Stromberg Carb. Is it good practice to unscrew the float chamber plug (item 24 on page 109 of the VicBrit catalog) in the spring, and clear out any potential condensation?

Reason I ask, I was driving, and at ~45mph, the engine felt like it quit for an very brief instant. Like maybe a drop of water got in front of the needle.

Or anyone have other suggestions. I was going to take some sandpaper to all electrical connections in the ignition train, like the coil.
 
My personal opinion is that a completely dry carb creates more of a problem. O-ring gets dry, gaskets may shrink and very likely the float chamber needle valve will stick in an open position.
While I can drive year round, I do have a tractor, several lawn mowers and a generator that sit idle for months at a time. I use Stabil and they fire right up after hibernation.
 
Joe - are you sure that plug will screw out? I thought for the '78 CD150 that this plug is a push/pull, not a screw-in, and no I would not try to pull it out, certainly not as regular spring maintenance.

It takes a fair amount of force or some leveraged prying to get it out, and there is a chance of damaging it and/or the o-ring. Its not as easy as you would think. A damaged o-ring leaks gas onto the hot exhaust manifold below.

I think that plug is a vestige of an earlier carb that used the same bowl, but instead of a plug there was actually a needle-orifice that could be adjusted up and down. Later models had a brass screw-in plug. By '78 I think ZS just rammed that plastic plug in and did not mean for it to be taken out unless you had it on the bench.

A little condensation (water) in the carb bowl should get sucked out of there pretty quick, and as the carb/manifold heats up any small amount of moisture should just vaporize.

It sounds to me like the problem you're having is more like ignition than fuel.
 
One thing you might want to check out is your fuel filter. Take it out, and blow it out in reverse. If you get brown gas out then that means that you have a rusty tank.




my current problem. :frown:
 
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