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Sluggish Midget- what could it be

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K

kmcormick9

Senior Member
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More sluggish than normal that is..........
The last time I took my Midget out for a drive it started out as "peppy" as always but after about 3 minutes got very sluggish. The acceleration was nonexistant and dump trucks were beating me out of stop lights. Once it got up to speed it had no problems. I got to my destination and looked under the hood and the main thing I noticed was that the fuel filter was barely filling up- maybe a mm deep puddle in the bottom, instead of half full as usual. I went swimming and when I came back to it, it was running fine again- for another 3 minutes or so- and then it began with the sluggishness again.
Hopefully this is a bad fuel pump or clogged line but I cant escape the notion that it may be something more sinister like a head gasket. Any ideas?
 
Well, sure sounds like a fuel delivery problem to me. Does your Midget have, maybe, two fuel filters....one in the engine compartment and one between the gas tank and fuel pump? If so, it's probably the rear fuel filter.

If not, change the fuel filter and blow out the gas line with compressed air....could be crud in the fuel line or accumulated grunge in the gas tank clogging the screen at the fuel line.

In none of that fixes it, it's most likely the fuel pump.
 
I'm wondering if the sluggishness isn't heat related. If the vehicle runs fine for about 3 minutes, then gets sluggish, That's about how long it would take the car to completely warm up. Are the carbs well insulated from the exhaust manifold?

Just a thought.
 
It sounds like it is running a little rich to me...fine until it warms up and needs a rich mixture, but too rich once it is warmed up /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Bruce /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif
 
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