RUNNING PROBLEM

wick68355@aol.com · Aug 6, 2006

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I have been battling a running problem on our amphicar since May. I believe it is vapor lock and it is driving me nuts. The engine will be running fine with plenty of power and all of a sudden it starts to loose power. It will only stay running if you play a tap dance on the pedal and keep pumping it. It will not develop enough power to keep the car running and it dies. The engine is a fresh rebuild with less then a thousand mileson it. The carb is brand new from Mike when he was selling them last year. Ignition is electronic Fireball. Coil, rotor and plugs are new. Strainerat tank is clean, electricfuel valve works fine. Fuel pump has strong pressure and holds a vacuum gauge at 3.5 psi indefinitely. Fuel line is not collapsed and is free of restrictions. So help me figure this out. I remember my Corvair turbo had a vapor lock problem when I bought it. Pump had been changed to electric, fuelfilter installed in line, different fuel line leading to pump and carb. The guy before me tried everything and it still vapor locked.Well I fixed it by putting it all back to stock the way GM engineered it thirty years earlier. So why won't this quirky little German/ Triumph run?Help me figure this out. The only thing that is different is the gas tank is full of premium instead of my usual regular.
Tim Wick
Wisconsin

PVCJ PVCJ · Aug 6, 2006

Hello Tim: This is how i took care of my vapor lock problems

>From: wick68355@aol.com
>Reply-To: amphicar-lovers@yahoogroups.com
>To: amphicar-lovers@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [amphicar-lovers] RUNNING PROBLEM
>Date: Sun, 6 Aug 2006 17:23:42 EDT
>
>I have been battling a running problem on our amphicar since May. I believe
>it is vapor lock and it is driving me nuts. The engine will be running fine
>with plenty of power and all of a sudden it starts to loose power. It will
>only
>stay running if you play a tap dance on the pedal and keep pumping it. It
>will not develop enough power to keep the car running and it dies. The
>engine
>is a fresh rebuild with less then a thousand miles on it. The carb is
>brand
>new from Mike when he was selling them last year. Ignition is electronic
>Fireball. Coil, rotor and plugs are new. Strainer at tank is clean,
>electric fuel
>valve works fine. Fuel pump has strong pressure and holds a vacuum gauge at
>3.5 psi indefinitely. Fuel line is not collapsed and is free of
>restrictions.
>So help me figure this out. I remember my Corvair turbo had a vapor lock
>problem when I bought it. Pump had been changed to electric, fuel filter
>installed
> in line, different fuel line leading to pump and carb. The guy before me
>tried everything and it still vapor locked. Well I fixed it by putting it
>all
>back to stock the way GM engineered it thirty years earlier. So why won't
>this
>quirky little German/ Triumph run? Help me figure this out. The only thing
>that is different is the gas tank is full of premium instead of my usual
>regular.
>Tim Wick
>Wisconsin

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Bihari, James · Aug 7, 2006

<table>The only thing I noticed that Tim Wick didn't mention is a new distributor cap. Last year when I had
problems folks mentioned that hairline cracks in the distributor cap could cause misfiring when it heated up.
Last year when I was just getting my car running, it would run fine but after about 5 miles it would die.
Advice from folks went along two lines--half said it was electrical and half said it was fuel related (vapor lock). We replaced too many things at once to isolate the problem but I think in my case it was electrical.
We replaced the coil, points, condenser, distributor cap, and spark plug wires. We added an electric fan above the radiator, electric fuel pump, sheet metal heat shield under the carburetor (homemade), and also wrapped the muffler in fiberglass and sheetmetal. Then it worked fine. Since then, I have removed the
fiberglass from the muffler (when I had the muffler off I never put the insulation back on). I never use the
electric fuel pump, and I usually don't use the electric fan (unless it'sreally hot) and the car runs fine so I
think in my case it was the coil or condenser or distributor cap or something that only had troubles when it
got hot.

Unrelated to this,thanks to Ed Price for the answers about the spark arrestor and big waves. Until
tonight, I'd say that the scariest conditions I was in, were last weekend in Celina. Friday evening
around sunset after the splash in,we were heading back over to the ramp by the Eagles to go back
to our motel. I saw about 5 other Amphis heading that way. What did you guys think of those
waves? Those were huge (5 ft?) splashes coming off the front. Good thing we had our top up. My
girlfriend's 3 1/2 year old daughter was in the backseat watching "Lazy Town" on the little 12 volt
TV we had back there and at one point she said, "I--I am not scared." She really did watch TV
more than look out the windows. But she seemed to have fun at the meet and it did calm down
by the time of the fireworks show which we watched from the car in the lake.

But this evening I was out with my neighbors in the Sciota River downtown Columbus where I'd
been 4 or 5 times before. One time a month back the river was pretty high and fast and seemed
like it must have been going about 5 mph under the bridges you had to pass under to get back to
the boat ramp. It took a lot longer going upstream than it had going downstream. But tonight
the river was way too low. There are always some big bumps you hit a few feet from the boat ramp
that shake the car a bit. But tonight I thought we were going to tip over several times. And at one point
when we were further downtown in what is normally much deeper water, I must have hit a large
log or something that I never saw, but it suddenly whipped the steering wheel all to one side and we
went diagonal up and over something that must have been 18 inches under the surface or so. It
really seemed to tip the car both ways and one of the guys sitting on the back just about fell out.
And heading back to the boat ramp, I think I hardly needed my propellors on as I could just drive it
on the tires but it was really bumpy and I think my passengers (and I) thought we were going to tip over.
And right off the boat ramp no matter where I tried to go (2 times in and 2 times out) I'd hit something
thatwould really make the car tip sideways. Couldone tire drive up over anything high enough to tip
the car over? Definitely the scariest trip I've been on so far. I'll take deep water any day over shallow
water with a really rough and unpredictable river bottom. Anyone have any stories/advice related to this?

Jim Bihari

WB6WSN · Aug 7, 2006

<table style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">
<blockquote style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<div class="OutlookMessageHeader" lang="en-us" dir="ltr" align="left">From: amphicar-lovers@yahoogroups.com [mailto:amphicar-lovers@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of wick68355@aol.com
Sent: Sunday, August 06, 2006 2:24 PM
To: amphicar-lovers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [amphicar-lovers] RUNNING PROBLEM
<div class="OutlookMessageHeader" lang="en-us" dir="ltr" align="left">
<div class="OutlookMessageHeader" lang="en-us" dir="ltr" align="left">
I have been battling a running problem on our amphicar since May. I believe it is vapor lock and it is driving me nuts. The engine will be running fine with plenty of power and all of a sudden it starts to loose power. It will only stay running if you play a tap dance on the pedal and keep pumping it. It will not develop enough power to keep the car running and it dies. The engine is a fresh rebuild with less then a thousand mileson it. The carb is brand new from Mike when he was selling them last year. Ignition is electronic Fireball. Coil, rotor and plugs are new. Strainerat tank is clean, electricfuel valve works fine. Fuel pump has strong pressure and holds a vacuum gauge at 3.5 psi indefinitely. Fuel line is not collapsed and is free of restrictions. So help me figure this out. I remember my Corvair turbo had a vapor lock problem when I bought it. Pump had been changed to electric, fuelfilter installed in line, different fuel line leading to pump and carb. The guy before me tried everything and it still vapor locked.Well I fixed it by putting it all back to stock the way GM engineered it thirty years earlier. So why won't this quirky little German/ Triumph run?Help me figure this out. The only thing that is different is the gas tank is full of premium instead of my usual regular.
Tim Wick
Wisconsin

Tom:

Your comment about "pumping the throttle keeps it running" doesn't sound like an electrical problem to me.


Take a look at the air venting on your fuel tank. If it doesn't allow air to come into the tank as the gas is used, you will pull a vacuum in the tank and starve the carb.

Also consider running a temporary fuel line to the carb that's away from the engine block. The routing of the OEM fuel line around the rear of the rocker cover transfers a lot of heat into the fuel. If the temporary line fixes the starvation, then either re-route the fuel line or provide insulation for it.


<div align="left">Ed Price
<div align="left">El Cajon, CA USA
<div align="left">67 Rust Guppy
<div align="left"></blockquote>

glennyrosa@comcast.net · Aug 7, 2006

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Tim,

I just had a similar problem this weekend with my car. Worked fine until I would put a load on the car, like pulling a hill. I finally pulled the fuel line off the carb and and ran the motor to check fuel flow. It was great. Then I pulled the 5 screws off the top of the carb and took the top off. Tried to blow thru the inlet and couldn't. Took the needle valve out and found a piece or rust or something blocking the valve inlet. Gave me enough fuel to get around town, but when I got it on the road it would start to starve. Check it out. It only takes 20 minutes to check the seat and put the top back on.

glenn in orygun

<blockquote style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">-------------- Original message --------------
From: wick68355@aol.com

<div id="ygrp-text">


I have been battling a running problem on our amphicar since May. I believe it is vapor lock and it is driving me nuts. The engine will be running fine with plenty of power and all of a sudden it starts to loose power. It will only stay running if you play a tap dance on the pedal and keep pumping it. It will not develop enough power to keep the car running and it dies. The engine is a fresh rebuild with less then a thousand mileson it. The carb is brand new from Mike when he was selling them last year. Ignition is electronic Fireball. Coil, rotor and plugs are new. Strainerat tank is clean, electricfuel valve works fine. Fuel pump has strong pressure and holds a vacuum gauge at 3.5 psi indefinitely. Fuel line is not collapsed and is free of restrictions. So help me figure this out. I remember my Corvair turbo had a vapor lock problem when I bought it. Pump had been changed to electric, fuelfilter installed in line, different fuel line leading to pump a
nd carb. The guy before me tried everything and it still vapor locked.Well I fixed it by putting it all back to stock the way GM engineered it thirty years earlier. So why won't this quirky little German/ Triumph run?Help me figure this out. The only thing that is different is the gas tank is full of premium instead of my usual regular.
Tim Wick
Wisconsin

</blockquote>

RUNNING PROBLEM

wick68355@aol.com

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PVCJ PVCJ

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Bihari, James

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WB6WSN

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glennyrosa@comcast.net

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