Post by Brad Wunder on Jan 25, 2011 16:28:04 GMT -5
...let me share a little lesson I just learned after 2 years. Late last year I was having trouble getting my motor to run properly and attributed it to a crudded up idle jet. Replaced that and while it ran better it just didn't seem to run like I thought it should. Terry Ives told me to make sure I drain my float bowl before leaving the track to avoid having issues with gas gumming things up. When I did my end of year cleanup (Scott B, I mean that figuratively, not that I actually cleaned my kart), it occurred to me that I should drain the gas out of the float bowl of the motor that had been sitting on my workbench, untouched, since last May. Open up the screw...no gas comes out. hmmmmm.
Fast forward to last Friday as I was prepping for the test session. I swapped motors and put on the one that had been sitting. First indication of a problem was when I was attaching the throttle cable. The friggen slider was stuck in the barrel (not sure what it is actually called but my term makes sense to me so I'm going with it). ARRRRG. I was finally able to get it out but it was pretty much a gooey mess. Cleaned it up and finally got everything reinstalled and tried to start it. "That's a big no go there Houston." Not knowing how to tear down, clean and reassemble these carbs I took the one off the motor I finished up last season with and it least it would start. Doesn't run great, but at least it runs.
My guess is that after these carbs have sat around with gas in them for the better part of two years they are sticky gooey messes. Especially problematic are the off-season periods where they sit for months without anything running through them.
I've made arrangements with Terry to go over to his place next week for a training session on how to clean/maintain WF carbs so I can things running the way they should.
So, the point of this long winded post is, DRAIN THE FRIGGEN GAS OUTTA YOUR CARB!!
If you do that one simple step (one little screw, takes all of 15 seconds) you shouldn't HAVE any maintenance issues with your carb.
Fast forward to last Friday as I was prepping for the test session. I swapped motors and put on the one that had been sitting. First indication of a problem was when I was attaching the throttle cable. The friggen slider was stuck in the barrel (not sure what it is actually called but my term makes sense to me so I'm going with it). ARRRRG. I was finally able to get it out but it was pretty much a gooey mess. Cleaned it up and finally got everything reinstalled and tried to start it. "That's a big no go there Houston." Not knowing how to tear down, clean and reassemble these carbs I took the one off the motor I finished up last season with and it least it would start. Doesn't run great, but at least it runs.
My guess is that after these carbs have sat around with gas in them for the better part of two years they are sticky gooey messes. Especially problematic are the off-season periods where they sit for months without anything running through them.
I've made arrangements with Terry to go over to his place next week for a training session on how to clean/maintain WF carbs so I can things running the way they should.
So, the point of this long winded post is, DRAIN THE FRIGGEN GAS OUTTA YOUR CARB!!
If you do that one simple step (one little screw, takes all of 15 seconds) you shouldn't HAVE any maintenance issues with your carb.
