Troubleshooting help Needed

[emlesnick]

Hi all Thanks in Advance. I'm at my wits end and have used up my limited knowledge. I'll try to make some sense but cant promise anything lol

Engine is a rebuilt A4 purchased 2 years ago with probably a total of less than 10 hours time on it. Last year was very short season.

Engine started running rough and would not accelerate through full range of RPMs no matter what setting throttle was at.

Engine would start and die out. Would only start and run with full choke.
I let engine sit for a few minutes and then it would start back up.

I thought maybe the Water/Fuel Separator wasn't working or needed to be changed.

I changed the bulkead mounted Racor Water/Fuel separator. I forgot to fill filter with fuel when I reinstalled.

Engine would start only on full choke and die out. Engine Very Anemic. As soon as choke was lessened it would die.

I removed Racor filter to make sure fuel was in there and it was.

I removed Fuel line at the Carb intake and jumped out fuel pump from "out going" side of Oil Pressure switch and fuel was flowing out of hose into a glass jar.

I took off the Carb, brought it home, and cleaned and removed jets as in the Video from Moyer (which was very helpful for me). The only thing I did not do on the video was use the wooden dowel.

Upon trying to reinstall Carb I could not get the Aft bolt to catch. I attempted this for a long time and finally realized threads were stripped on Carb. I got a new longer bolt that caught the last 3 good threads and seemed to work. It made a tight seal to flange and didn't protrude to hit Idle set screw.

I reinstalled Carb and Engine would not start. It turned over once on full choke and died immediately.

We tried jumping out fuel pump again to starter to make sure it was "humming" just incase I made a bad connection reinstalling. Pump was making the sound.

I tried every combo of throttle/choke/idle set screw setting to no avail.

I am unsure if fuel is getting into carb. Spark plugs seemed dry. There was a little fuel under spark arrestor according to my partner in crime.

I looked at wire that runs from the Distributor Cap to Oil pressure shut off switch. There was a lot of "goop" in fuse and on terminal end of switch. Not sure if its anti corrosion stuff or something else?

Is it possible to "jump out" oil switch by just clamping some alligator clips to top of distributor cap and to "out side" of the switch?

Any other suggestions?

I'm sure many of you out there can imagine my state of mind right now

I spent over an hour trying to get the carb back onto the flange, had to make trip off boat down to hardware store to get new bolt, etc, etc.

This engine is rebuilt and has has such little usage. I'm sure the fault lies with me somewhere but for the life of me I can't figure out what is wrong. I'm losing valuable cruising time and getting frustrated.

Thanks for any and all suggestions and thoughts

[CalebD]

Welcome.

A few quick spurts of ether/starting fluid into the flame arrestor and then starting the engine will tell you if you have spark; if it kicks over a few times and then dies you've got spark.
If you have spark but no fuel then your fuel pump is a likely suspect. If your fuel pump is electric the OPSS (oil pressure sensor switch) is also a suspect as well as the pump. The OPSS can be bypassed temporarily in the wiring for testing.

When was the last time your fuel tank was drained or cleaned? You could have crud in your tank if it has been there for a number of years like mine was.

[Marty Levenson]

Sure sounds like a gas related problem. Maybe you fixed the initial gas supply problem (carb and filters) but now have a new problem....

When you reattached the carb did you set up the throttle cable properly? If it is staying shut when you think you have full throttle, that would of course keep gas from entering manifold. Similarly, take off the flame arrestor and confirm that the choke is fully closed when you give it choke. Either of those cables can look right but slip.

Are you sure the carb- manifold connection is air tight now? An air leak there keeps manifold from sucking gas up to plugs. As they say, ask me how I know.

Don't forget to shut off water intake when you do a lot of cranking.

Good luck,
Marty

[emlesnick]

I will def double check cables. What does leaving water intake open do? Ill be working on this starting in an hour or two. Thanks

[roadnsky]

Originally Posted by emlesnick

What does leaving water intake open do?

If you are doing a lot of cranking in a no-start situation, be sure to close the raw water intake until you get the engine running..
the water pump spins along with the starter (mechanically driven) so it will fill up the exhaust/muffler and then can back up and dump water into the cylinders thru the manifold.

NOT a good thing!

[romantic comedy]

remember you need 3 things to run

spark
fuel
compression


try using starting fluid. see if that makes a difference.