Never touch the valve as long as it is dry! They start to leak when they are
turned once.
After much trouble I simply dumped the whole tap unit! There are repairing
kits available here in Germany (you can get every size of these three holes
gaskets on vintage car markets) but the repair just lasted for a year or so.
Tried a brand new tap with similar effect.
Some German Club members use valves from motorcycles, but I gave up all
hopes and replaced it with an electro magnetic valve directly connected at
the tank. Most of the Amphicars have an additional magnetic valve anyway. So
what is the manual valve good for?
The idea to have a reserve fuel is a bit simple minded in my eyes, your
clock says early enough when it is time to refill the tank. And 47 litres
are 47 litres with or without reserve.
But if you dump the valve take care of the fitting. With the valve comes off
the little pipe through the fitting hole which give you the imagination of a
reserve (if you need it hardly one time after years of not using you will
find out, that it won?t work because of water or dirt on the bottom of the
tank). On the fitting nut you have to weld a fitting for the petrol tube on
the lower end and inside you will have to mount a dirt filter which goes
through the tiny fitting hole of the tank. Those can be found again on
motorcycles.
Further you need to add a paper filter in the fuel line. I highly recommend
to use an electric fuelpump in addition to the mechanical one. Why? Because
then you get petrol into the carburetor BEFORE the first engine turn, that
means the engine starts much easier and earlier. Also I?ve seen Amphicars
stopped on road because the rubber diaphragma from the mechanical pump
failed from one moment to the other. I don?t want to experience that in the
water.
If you are afraid of blow ups there are two more chances to get on fire! One
is the tankinlet rubber, which usually always leaks as well (never fill the
tank up to the bottom!) and second is the carburetor. When you park the
Amphicar with the engine hot, the petrol in the carb starts to boil. The
steam pressure pushes out the petrol up the accelerating pipe so it drops on
the shut accelerating flap. This thing is astonishing tied when shut so the
petrol does not drop further down into the inlet manifold, but finds it way
through the flaps shafts to the outside of the carb. There it will drop on
the hot exhaust manifold and fills your car with a deadly mixture of gas and
oxygene.
Happy driving,
Ren?
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Echemann <echemike@earthlink.net>
To: <amphicar-lovers@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2001 2:02 PM
Subject: Re: [amphicar-lovers] Fuel Trap Question
> Bill is absolutely correct. To bypass this valve or repair an old tap is
an
> unwise choice. Actually this is not a bad part to have a spare in case
Huge
> is out just when you need one.
> Mike
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Bill Connelly <billiam@erols.com>
>
> > One word: BOOOOM!
> >
> >
> > Unless you are the managing director of an engineering unit, the advised
> > course of action is to bite that C-Note bullet, call Hugh and just
replace
> a
> > leaking fuel tap unit. This is absolutely NOT where you want to
> > skimp...doubly so if you happen to have an early model Amphi with the
> heater
> > under the gas tank.
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> amphicar-lovers-unsubscribe@egroups.com
>
>
>
