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TR2/3/3A Like a dog chasing it's tail ,,,TR3 troubles

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bluemiata90

bluemiata90

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As a british car owner, did you ever feel like a dog chasing it's own tail. For the last week, I sure did. I bought a TR3 last fall(it had to be towed home, but after minor work it started right up) and over the winter I did a body restoration on it. Last week was the big day to bring it out of it's winter sleep and enjoy the first sunny day in weeks. It started perfect and idled great and 2 blocks from home it died. Check clear fuel filter, fuel in it, blew out fuel line with compressed air. Did compression check,O.K., changed out distributor, changed from pertronix back to points back to pertronix. checked fuel pump, rebuilt fuel pump, checked carbs, rebuilt carbs,twice. I must have changed everything at least once, it would start and idle great, but 2 blocks away it would die. Anyways, you get the picture. After one whole week of this I finally found the problem. Over the winter, I had removed the gas tank and used cleaner and sealer in it. The fuel hole had just enough opening to allow low speed fuel, but upon acceleration, it would starve out the fuel. All that had to be done was to remove the fuel line on the bottom of the tank and stick a screw driver in it to break the seal. Yes, I felt like a dog chasing it's tail. Hope this wasn't to long, but I figured if anyone would understand, british car owners would. Thanks for listening.
 
Had a similar think happen to me. Parked my TR3 on an incline, front end higher than the rear. After several weeks of minor maintenance, points replacement, etc. I tried to start the car to check the timing, set the idle, etc. It start but soon stalled and would not restart. Fuel starvation was the apparent cause. Starting at the carbs, no gas flow so I began working toward the tank to find a blockage in the fuel line. I did check the fuel level, the gauge read very low and a dip stick into the tank showed about an inch of gas in the tank. After much frustration at not finding a problem I quit for the night.
It then occurred to me that fuel flow to the pump is by gravity. I rolled the car onto level ground and it started right up. There was so little gas in the tank and by parking it on the incline I had created the problem. Like you, a simple fix but frustrating to find because I think we tend to look for more complex causes first.
 
This is the second time I've read about sealant inside a gas tank blocking the outlet hole. When I did this to a tank on a TR3A I restored last year, I made sure that this would not happen to me. I'll bet you will never have this happen to you again. And all those TR readers who "slush" the inside of their gas tanks will thank you for letting them know about your discovery.
 
In 1917, my mother, then 13 years old, traveled by car (a 1917 Maxwell) from central Ohio to Seattle, Washington. When they reached the mountains, many cars had to climb the passes going backward, for precisely this reason.

So, the problem has been around a loooooooooong time...!
 
I had a rusty '66 IHC two ton truck years ago for a water truck at one of the dirt ovals I used to run stock car races at.

My guys could only get about a half a lap while watering the track before it would run out of fuel at the carb. They'd get out, open the hood, mess with it awhile and then get back in and it would fire right up only to die again. I rebuilt the carb, new fuel pump, new lines...never got it fixed.

Then one day an old timer overheard me complaining about that truck and he told me that the cab mounts were rusty and the weight of the driver would pinch the fuel line and stop the fuel flow....sure enough...that was it. I re-routed the line and it never died again!
 
YankeeTR said:
Then one day an old timer overheard me complaining about that truck and he told me that the cab mounts were rusty and the weight of the driver would pinch the fuel line and stop the fuel flow....sure enough...that was it. I re-routed the line and it never died again!
Click to expand...

Why, the Old Timer must have been Gus, of Gus' Model Garage in Popular Mechanics!
 
This is why I bought a new fuel tank rather then have any work done on the old one. The tank on my original body was a known good entity, but the new body I'm putting on (post 60000) has a tank that I don't know anything about.
 
In the For What It's Worth department:

When the Douglas DC-1 (the "grandfather" of modern airliners) was first tested in 1933, the engines would rev up no problem in the hangar. All final adjustments were made, and the crew took it to the runway for its first test flight.

Soon as the tail lifted and the plane was horizontal (the DC-1 was a taildragger - tail always on the ground unless flying), the engines would sputter and die. Many adjustments were tried but same thing always happened when the plane was about to take off. Tail lifted into the air - engines would sputter and die. Tail back down, engines revved right up.

Turned out the carburetors had been mounted backwards. When the plane would lift its tail, the carburetor floats would cut off the fuel flow to the engines. When the engineers turned the carburetors 180 degrees, the trouble cleared.

Yep - really did happen.

Tom
DC-1, DC-2, DC-3 - queens of the air.
 
DC-3's... We knew 'em as C-47's. Goonies. Me Ol' Fella was medevac'd outta Germany in 1944, flew over the channel in one so full of holes he said he could see the water from his stretcher... Still airworthy tho. They were in Viet Nam, and still used around here as spray birds for Medfly and mosquitos. Seems they won't die now!
 
Many of them still flying in South America. If I remember correctly, there is an outfit in Oshkosh WI that retrofits them with turbos.
 
Don Elliott said:
My first flight was in a DC3. I was an Air Cadet, 14 at the time.
Click to expand...

Me too, probably age 7 or 8. On a flight from South Bend to Indy I recall they buzzed the field in Kokomo to throw out a bag of mail.
 
kc_doyle said:
Many of them still flying in South America. If I remember correctly, there is an outfit in Oshkosh WI that retrofits them with turbos.
Click to expand...

Basler Air Service. The sound of the turbines isn't nearly as cool as the sound of the radials, in my opinion. Lake Central Airlines used DC-3s on the run from Morgantown, WV Airport to Pittsburgh until 1969. Many's the time I lay awake at night and listened to the '3s run up. The sound came through the open windows on a hot summer night. Can't beat that sound.

Maybe that's what drove me to a career in aviation...
 
Oh ya, DC3. I used to ride them, Trans Texas Airlines AKA Tree Top, between Dallas Love and Fort Polk. Played cards on the floor with the stewardess one time. You know, the days when a stewardess was a babe and a half and there were no stewards.

Cross country in a 1917 Maxwell, dirt roads, mountain passes, etc. And many of us get worried about leaving the city limits in our LBC's. Me thinks many of us are wimps.
 
Mark - that sure brings back memories to me. I lived the first 20 years of my life in Texas.

I remember the old jokes:

TTA = Tinker Toy Airlines

Gate attendant announces "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome aboard Trans Texas Airlines flight number 2, going from one end of the runway to the other."

When they got their first jet sometimes in the 1960s, the whole town would go to see the plane without propellors. I was in the crowd.

Those were the days.
Tom
 
Mark - At TRA in Auburn, Indiana, there was a nice red TR3A in the concours. The owner had trailered it from Chicago because "Oh! It's too far to drive it. It must be over 100 miles". There are many TR owners who forget (or never knew) that in 1960 a TR3A ran for almost 4 days at an average speed of over 100 MPH (I seem to remember it was 106 MPH average including stops for tire and driver changes and to fill up with petrol) at the banked oval track in Italy with six students from Cambridge University in England as the drivers. These cars just go and go and . . .
 
Don - when I read your post about the folks thinking 100 miles is too far to drive their TR3A, I immediately thought they should have been asked:

What's wrong with your TR?

Tom
 
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