by BalkaRoo » Sun Jul 19, 2015 12:50 pm
G'day Allan,
It starts and runs fine "most" of the time, but when it fools around in cold weather it will start and you can drive it for about 300 yards after which it will start to falter. Sometimes you can catch it before you completely stop and fiddling with the accelerator eventually it will get its breath and start running properly, just like its pumping a small amount of air through the injection pump. I have checked all the seals and joints and they all "appear" to be ok because I had wondered if it had an air leak somewhere, but it only does it in low temperatures (3 degree or lower) and only when you start from dead cold . If you try to just restart it without bleeding the system it will crank until the battery is flat and as you have done 300 odd yards there should be plenty of heat in the engine to keep it running. As for how many "pumps" the priming handle takes, I gave up on trying to get the priming knob on the water trap to work years ago and carry a fuel pump off my old 2 litre petrol Jackaroo under the bonnet and hook that up to prime it when ever I need to. I fill up most weeks so it won't be waxy fuel and I do drive it quite a lot, I took it on an interstate trip back in April and it never missed a beat (it didn't make enough power but that's another story) It only takes about 5 seconds pumping to bring it back to life again but its very annoying especially in my good cloths.
I have read some postings several years ago that were talking about this problem but cant remember what the cause was and now can't find the relevant posts. I remember that one chap that had trouble on cold days with his was in Port Headland up in the North of West Oz and it would never get as cold in our North as it would in New Zealand so don't know what happens to cause it.
Graham
Editing thought.
The more I think about it the more I think it must be something to do with leaking a small amount of air in through somewhere, either the valves in the priming handle not holding the fuel up to the pump and letting a small amount of air into the pump housing through a dry seal or some such when gravity is trying to pull the fuel back to the tank, but "why" only when its cold. Its been doing this for about 5 years and will go all summer autumn and spring without missing a beat and then periodically on cold days in winter it will do it. Normal temperature days in winter don't worry it only cold ones.