THE FUEL SUPPLY SYSTEM.
Page 27
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Difficulties Met and Overcome by Our Driver and Mechanic Readers.
AN engine will not run without fuel, or, at least, so said the employer one day when, on investigating a complaint from one of hi,s drivers, who said he could not start his engine, he found the petrol still turned off. Of course, there are no readers of this page, much less contributors to it., who would do a trick like that--at least., we rather think not, although, after ell, the most unexpected things do happen sometimes.
For instance, the owner of a lorry had a nasty shock the other day when he stripped the thread off the drain cock of his carburetter, and found that this cock actually served to hold the carburetter together, so that, having stripped the thread, he could not get the carburetter together again. Being a Sunday, there was no chance of getting a spare, and the lorry was badly wanted for a job on Monday morning. Happily for him, however, he came across a man. of resource in " of Birkenhead, who effected a sound repair and sent him on his way rejoicing.
The manner of the repair is almost sufficiently demonstrated. by the accompanying sketc..h, The drain cock was soldered in place, enabling it to fulfil one of its functions satisfactorily. To hold the carburetter together other means were taken. A steel washer 1 in. larger in diameter than the float chamber was procured and drilled for the ends of a 1-in, II bolt, mounted as shown. This " t emporary " repair has now passed into the category of permanent construction, the owner being quite satisfied with it after the lapse of several months.
We have awarded " G.H.R." the Ifs. prize for his letter descrIing this effort.
" of Rotherham, tolls us hew he trued up the needle of a ca.f: buretter, and, incidentally, suggests a number of uses for a .breast
drill— always a most useful implement.
A carburetter float needle had been accidentally bent, and the jeli was how to repair it. The worst bends were taken out by gentle hammering on a plate. The needle Was then fixed in the chuck of a 'breast drill, which was then held in the vice as shown in the accompanying sketch. Final dressing of the
needle was accomplished by holding a fine file up to it while the hand wheel of the drill was turned • The same procedure may be adopted in the case of any round part which needs smoothing down or even reducing in diameter, provided, of course, that the amount of metal which has to he removed is not too large.
One of the most. tieful of inventions in connection with petrol supply sys tems is the Autovac. "W.W.," of Bradford, had a tittle trouble with the system of this type on his vehicle re.:„
• cently, owing to the breakage of the stem of the float inside the apparatus: This:fracture disarranged the whole of
the interior inech.anism .of the Autovac and permitted petrol to flow over into the engine induction manifold via. the suction pipe, which couples that manifold to the chamber of the Autovae. The first intimation received that any thing was wrong was through the stop page of the engine. Examination disclosed the fact. that the induction manifold was half full of petrol, following which the Atttovac was inspected, and the derangement already described was discovered.
At the time " W.W." was in open country, far from either houses or .shops, so, some sort of emergency repair le to be devised. In effecting this renal' _he used simple means, but was, nevertheless fortunate, in our opinion, in that the petrol tank was not very low down ;in the ohassis. the pqartioulav vehicle in his charge, he explains, the engine 15 threepoint suspended in the. chassis, and the con,irbections for petrol and oil pipes are partly rubber tubing. He broke the connection between petrol tank and Autovac by removing the rubber pipe; the seine thing was done with the pipe which leads from the Auto.*;,ae to the .carburetter., By benclin,, the pipes somewnat tie was able, with one rubber connection, to join the pipe from the tank to that on the carburetter, thus providing direct fuel feed and cutting out the Autiavac. There only remained the suction pipe between induction manifold and Auto
• vac, which was removed, and the union on the manifold tightly corked.
So equipped, the journey home was made quite easily, with only one alight 'contretemps, when a hill had to be climbed, the gradient being such that 'petrol would not flow direct from tank to carburetter. This trouble was easily overcome by turning the lorry round at the bottom of the hill and going up in reverse gear.
HON.," of Old Windsor, sends a. sketch of a simple and cheap type of extra-air fitting.The materials are a 3 ft. 6 in. length of 5-16-in, copper pipe, with a couple of unions to .fit and an old compression tap. A water-hose clip may be used to hold the pipe in place on the steering column as shown. This gives the great advantage that the air adjustment can easily be carried out from Lbe driver's seat