engine and drivetrain Hard Start After Week Or Two

[fwardell]

My '76 '02 with manual choke 32/36 Weber and Pertronix and de-smogged runs just great. It's tuned nicely for good performance and a smooth idle. There is one problem: when it sits for a week or more, it cranks for a long time before the engine fires, choked and pumped, then it runs just fine. The fuel filter is installed correctly, valves are set properly, and the fuel pump works well. There's no gas smell. Obviously I need to drive it more and not let it sit, but sometimes I can't help it! Also, there is a long, but not significant, crank time when hot and sitting for 15 or more minutes. Thoughts?

[Guest_anonymous]

How old are your rubber fuel lines? How is the condition of the fuel vapor lines and gas cap seal?

[TobyB]

Let it sit, then take the top off the carb.

 

If it's not full of gas, then it's time to figure out why-

there are a number of things that can do it, but

just boiling away (in the California sunshine) is the

usual one...

 

hth

 

t

[Mike Self]

My 32/36 Weber always has taken awhile to start after having sat for more than 4-5 days, and I suspect it's simply gas evaporating from the float chamber.  Webers have a small air vent inside the carb throat (near the air correction jets) that leads directly into the float chamber.  If the car's been sitting for awhile, I simply take a small rubber squeeze bulb, fill it with gas and squirt it down the air vent into the float chamber.  Then it starts right up.   Single barrel Solexes have a big brass pipe that sticks out the top of the carb and into the air cleaner that's also a vent.  Easy to fill up.

 

cheers

mike

[Honolulu]

FWIW, the twin Zeniths on E9s do this as well.  However, I don't hold with the evaporation theory, at least because my car's garaged.  I think more likely the fuel seeps into the manifold and down into the engine oil past the rings, which is not good.  But if I daily drive my CS, it will start quite readily.

[roadhog0]

Gas will evaporate in a garage if left in an open container, and a carb is an open container. My 02 does the same thing, let it sit for a week and it's gotta pump gas up to the top again. Killer on my old starter...