Problem Solving and a Carburettor Rebuild

A short jaunt out in the Corsair on Christmas Eve ended with the car spluttering the last ½ mile home and cutting out on the driveway. A bit of a tinker a few days later couldn’t get it started and I suspected a condenser problem.

Today, I had a whole afternoon to fiddle with the Corsair, after ordering new points and condenser as a back up/ precaution from a local motor factor (Automotive). Tests showed the fuel pump was working fine and that the condenser appeared to be in good order. So my attention turned to the carburettor which was due a rebuild as I had bought new jets a while ago as John from AJ Restoration had suggested.

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The Fan Belt Saga

Well, pretty much as the title describes. After the fan belt had snapped I knew it wouldn’t be too much of a problem, after all I’d be going to the NEC Classic Car Show in Birmingham (Saturday 12th Nov 2017) and hoped to be able to buy one up there for an inflated show price.

Simon Barlow’s Supercharged Methanol burning Outlaw Anglia (Fordson Van) at the NEC

It was a good show, lots to see as I got in there from about 9.30am and didn’t leave until 5pm and no I didn’t find a fan belt to buy but the chaps on Burton Power suggested I phone them and discuss their options. The Ford Corsair Owners Club came up trumps with a cup of tea for a paid up member just at the right time and then I ate a piece of cake from the Enthusiasts of British Built Motor Vehicles Built Before 1985 club stand, and there was lots of talking too. I came away tired but satisfied along with a couple of presents for myself. Continue reading “The Fan Belt Saga”

A few more miles

A bit more driving the Corsair happened today and what a lovely day it was. First it was family trip to Compton Abbas Airfield, and the Corsair struggled up Spread Eagle hill in second gear with a line of traffic behind, but probably glad that I turned off for the airfield. After my son had his flight experience at the airfield I took a scenic route home via the fantastic B3081 that has far reaching views to Shaftesbury and the Blackmore Vale and then a drive down the legendary Zig Zag Hill. The brakes were fine and the tight turns ok.

After some lunch another jaunt took us out to Clayesmore School where I took the opportunity to take some photos against the back drop of the school’s main house. The car ran well and I’m getting used to the flat spot and driving through it. It also keeps up well with the local traffic, except on the big hills! So after three trips the corsair had done 54 miles. More fuel will be required before the next trip out, just in case.

So, once home I had to deal with the soggy carpet (when it got drenched over night last Friday) in the passenger side rear foot well. As per usual, a seized bolt holding the seat fame to the floor sheared so I needed to drill that out and re-thread to fit another bolt (metric though). It was a very good day.

Running problems and carb farts…

On the Saturday (8th April) I fitted a battery to use the fuel pump to suck fresh clean fuel from a fuel can to flush through the pipes, electric pump and in-line filter into a jar. The first wave of fuel was quite dirty, the second was cleaner and then the third batch was better still. The fuel wasn’t wasted – it went straight in to the lawnmower. The original battery was fitted – as the one I initially used didn’t have enough charge to turn the starter over properly. This one eventually fired the engine to life, after a few sluggish turn overs and then ran using fuel from the fuel can still sited on a wooden block at the other end of the car. After being satisfied with the car starting and running for a few minutes it was shut down and then the refurbished fuel tank was refitted with the remnants of the fuel can put in the tank.

On the Sunday a gallon (5 litres) of Tesco Momentum fuel was added – have been “Internet” informed it doesn’t contain ethanol, which can harm old fuel lines and components. With the help of my son, the brakes were re-bled (the system had a slight leak last summer and the reservoir became empty) and another fire up loomed with a test drive.

The test drive was down an access road to a car park, just across the road from my driveway, but it didn’t go to plan and the Corsair cut out as I was about to manouevre the car around at the bottom of the car park to come back! Then the Corsair wouldn’t start, not enough battery juice, at which point my son had been sent down to investigate as my wife couldn’t hear the Corsair’s engine running. We managed to push the car out of the way in the car park and then I jogged back to get the jump leads and the Passat.

The Corsair started fine but would only run for about a minute – so adjustment to the mixture screw enabled the engine to run without dying so quickly but with a fair bit of popping through the carburetor under load or acceleration. At least I could keep it going and drive the Corsair back into it’s garage. Disaster averted, but I’m none the wiser for getting the Corsair to run smoothly.

Fuel Tank Refinements

A spare half hour spent in the garage resulted in fitting the fuel sender with a new seal from my local Ford dealer who said (a while ago) they didn’t have any old stock left… The Ford Corsair Facebook came up with this gem though and somebody quoted the part number (6085380) and sure enough for £1.81 I had a brand new seal. The old one came off without too much drama, then a quick wire brush to clean off the residue of rust and any other dirt.

New seal on the left and old and crusty seal on the right
Old sender unit seal being prised out
Fuel sender fitted to the fuel tank nice and snug with the new seal

Sorted, I just need to flush the fuel pipes and fuel pump with clean petrol and then another start up looms…

Dom

Waxoyl – The Amateur Way

The Corsair up on ramps – March 2017

Another fine day towards the end of March enabled me to get the Corsair up on the ramps. It was after speaking to John (AJ Restorations), last year in August, that he strongly advised that I get the underside of the car Waxoyled or protected in some way. So a birthday present was a Waxoyl pump system. There were mixed reviews on line, but this one seemed to be a new and improved version. I had previously used Waxoyl, but applying it by brush was a messy process as it dripped a lot.

The instructions for the pump set up were a bit basic and not very in depth, so it was trial and error, again. There was the basic fitted nozzle to treat easily accessible, flat panels; a black pipe as per the photo with a squirty nozzle (there was a wide spray nozzle also supplied) for awkward areas and working upwards and then there was a thin transparent pipe for inserting into chassis rails etc. What a messy system I had got my self into.

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Fuel Tank Refurb Part 2

Fuel Tank re-painted

Some nice weather in mid March and there was a great opportunity to finish off the fuel tank with some more black Hammerite I had left over from previous jobs. All was going great, paint looking nice and drying well in the sunshine, and then I looked inside. The sealant I put in the previous week had begun to peel! Damn! ****! I was well aware that the inside of the tank needed to be ‘bone’ dry, but did I get it dry enough last time?… Obviously not!

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Fuel Tank Refurb Part 1

Back on it again after a few months off…

The fuel tank was removed a couple of weeks ago when there was a nice spell in the weather and I hadn’t fallen asleep by the Sunday afternoon! It didn’t take long and thankfully there wasn’t much fuel in the tank, about a litre of a translucent brown fluid. Straight after Christmas I bought a fuel tank repair kit, POR-15 on Amazon for about £45, in readiness and to help spur me on.

POR-15 kit, the small tin of sealer was more for a motorcycle size tank, I was being a bit tight with my money…

Reading about the procedure, it was evident that up to 3+ hours was needed for the process of which I used two hours on a nice Thursday afternoon on the 2 March to clean the tank. First it was the ‘Marine Clean’ (1:1 mix with very warm water), however my bubble wrap cover over the fuel sender unit hole was not very good and leaked a fair bit when I was sloshing the fluid mix about. The bubble wrap in the filler neck was fine and when I came to do the ‘Metal Ready’ part I just used duct tape over the sender aperture which was fine and hardly leaked.

Continue reading “Fuel Tank Refurb Part 1”

Fuel or electrical problems…

Last week – too much of a crap mood to write anything then – I looked at taking the Corsair out for a bit of test drive around the nearby garages/flats access road. While it took a bit to get started, the engine ran lumpy with popping and back firing through the carb, just as before. All I could think of was the fuel was dirty and contaminating the jets and other fine points of the carburettor. A message on Facebook about this and it was suggested that the electrics were at fault, but the other week the engine was running sweet, however the fuel did look dirty in the carb float chamber. So I have decided to remove the fuel tank (at some point), clean it best as I can and flush through the fuel lines, filter and pump, clean the carburettor (again) and hope this will solve the carburettor set up problems. I have also bought a NOS Motorcraft distributor, but upon closer inspection suspect it is for a Pinto (Ford) rather than for Essex V4.

I will get on to it when I feel like it and I need to buy a cleaning agent for the fuel tank.

Dom

Carburettor rebuild (Zenith 361V)

While the Corsair was away at AJ Restorations I had a go at rebuilding the Zenith 361V carburettor. I had bought another one to practice on first, but it was mainly designed for a Land Rover application as the fuel inlet was different and I wasn’t sure on some of the other internal subtle differences, so it was not suitable for the Corsair application. The only part I salvaged was the rod connecting the floats as the original was bent. I refrained from swapping the pump too as the Land Rover one had a much softer spring and I wondered if that would have an adverse effect on final operation.

The images are in a sequential order and partially explain the process.

Plenty of time was spent taking it apart and with the old gasket scrapped off and the whole carb dismantled, the mating faces of the body were rubbed on 1200 grit wet and dry paper with WD40 as a lubricant to flatten the surfaces. Plenty of carb cleaner was sprayed in all the holes and orifices then blown through with an air duster but it wasn’t very powerful.

I used these useful links to help in my research for what to do:

At this point the carburettor is untested but no doubt a report will be done once it has been fitted. I hope that was of interest and thanks for viewing.