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I put the Big Twin together with the cracked flywheel to see if I had a “runner” before
looking for a different flywheel. I couldn’t get it started as gas wasn’t going into the carb,
which was strange because the carb was thoroughly disassembled and cleaned. Had to take the
carb back off. Found the steel tip float needle was stuck in it’s seat. It wasn’t gunked up
and was clean as new underwear still in the package. I guess all the “beat marks” on the
carb from a P.O. should have been a tip off. Anyway, dug around and found a different
needle at seat that worked good.
Being manual start, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but it fired after two pulls
and was running in three.
The carb kept running out of gas at first. The tank was elevated close to what it would
be sitting on the bottom of a boat. It would keep running if I’d run the pumper on
the tank once in a while. I fiddled with the carb settings some and it eventually
seemed to be moving gas okay.
At the time, I didn’t think to loosen the cap on the fuel tank to see if there was an
adequate sounding pressure “build-up”.
Not sure what was going on for sure, and I’m hesitant on doing a “Lake test” with
the cracked flywheel. I see the flywheel has a little “wobble” while running….. not
sure if it’s just warped a little, or because of the cracks, but there’s no “wiggling”
of the flywheel when shut off.
If I have trouble with motor pressurizing the tank in the future, what did the
mechanic’s of yore do to check the air pressure going to the tank?
Seems like I remember hearing 4 to 5 psi was normal. ??
Can I just put my vintage automotive “vacuum / pressure” gas in a “T” on the
air line going to the tank?
Thanks.
Prepare to be boarded!