Manual fuel pump Help

[JDerrick]

I have a new to me old boat. She was running fine. Due to work the engine wasn't started for 6 months. She started once ran in gear about 10 min a quit. I have the maintenance manual. We changed plugs checked for fire, removed fuel and added fresh. We cleaned fuel/water seperator bowl out but can't seem to get the manual prime to work. Is there a trick. I know we need to drain carb but I didn't have a small box end to be able to remove the carb drain. Was trying to prime to fill the fuel separator just to make sure we had clean fuel at least to this point. First boat with A4. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Al Schober]

JD,
The mechanical pumps have a prime lever that works when you lift the lever. Perhaps you were pushing it down???

[Loki9]

There's a chance that the A4 is sitting in such a position that the fuel pump activating rod inside the A4 is fully extended. When that happens, the manual bail on the pump won't work.

OK, the above isn't very clear, but never mind, the fix is just to bump the starter to rotate the internals a little and then the manual bail will start working again.

[Dave Neptune]

J,first welcome to the Afourian Forum! The "bali" should prime with no problem and it may take quite a few strokes. If it does not draw fuel first check the work you did, the fuel lines and clamps for integrity. It only takes a tiny air leak to keep it from drawing the fuel when "priming".

Dave Neptune :cool:

[JDerrick]

Thanks gentlemen. I will try the above and report back

[sastanley]

J,

When the A-4 was new-to-me, that little priming bail was a mystery to me as well. :rolleyes:

If you carefully pay attention to the feedback from the bail, as you pull up on it you should feel a slight drag from the diaphragm moving inside...once it is done pulling air thru and gets to fuel, you'll feel the liquid as a different drag..once she is 'primed', the feedback of the lever will go slack, since you can no longer move the diaphragm inside because there is fuel in the pump chamber..at that point, the little bail goes limp.

Good Luck with it. :cool:

[jfo99]

Hi J: My A4 quit earlier this summer. It ran fine and then it stopped. With some help from the Forum, I rebuilt the fuel pump (I think the kit was $80) and now she runs great. Hopefully, the advice you already have gets you up and running, but if not, you may want to think about rebuilding the pump. My manual primer never worked -- as far as I could tell -- until I rebuilt the pump. After that, it worked as Shawn described and I can now feel it pumping fuel. Good luck. John

John Olsen
'73 Tartan 30

[domenic]

When I bought my C28 two and a half years ago, my beast needed help. When it came to the fuel pump…well…it would not pump, I took it off the engine, and put the inlet tube into water, and pumped it by hand, Water came out the outlet tube, and shot about ten feet. My conclusion was the pump worked. I screwed around for about six months with the rest of the fuel system…no luck. Out of desperation (with the pump on the engine, no air in the fuel line,) I unhooked the tube going to the carb, and cranked the engine over. No fuel came out. I hand pumped, and fuel came out. I called Ken and ordered a pump kit.
Those two little springs in the bottom of the hand pump thing. Turns out these were worn, and the little push rod could not push the arm in the pump to its max. Once I changed the two springs I was able to draw fuel from the tank to the pump with nothing in the fuel line but air. I have had no problem getting fuel to the carb since.

Stay on this forum, and read your preoblems away...Moyer has all the parts you need.

[dvd]

Yeah the little bail on the manual fuel pump kind of threw me a little. I'm so used to NOT forcing anything so as it turns out you have to move the bail a little bit harder than you would think to get it to feel the gas squish.

DVD

[sastanley]

dvd, yeah..exactly...the gas squish is definitely different than the diaphragm squishing air..I find that once I can feel the gas squish, it is 3 or 4 more pumps and it is done... I have the little Moyer polishing filter & a pressure gauge in line after the pump & before the carb with about 8" of hose, & as soon as the pump pulls fuel, I see the gauge go up about 0.5 PSI until it is done pumping & the bail goes limp at 2.5PSI & VROOOM!. :cool: