Short story: my float valve overflow line was full of fuel and leaking out at idle, engine vibrating a lot - what causes this? The engine has 3 hrs on it.
Due to some travel my 912ULS hadn't been started in about 5 weeks, so I went out and drained the gas and put new gas, went to start it up and it was hard. But got it started and did some taxiing - with a lot of vibration under 2000 rpm, everything good higher than that. Came back to the hangar and put throttle to idle and revs dropped to 400 and then the engine quit. Not good.
Went back next day with someone who knows more about engines than me and we discovered that the throttle cable on one of the carbs was buckled a bit and so we weren't mechanically in sync any more. We took care of that, started the plane up (not first time but not as hard as the previous day) and it was running great, idling at 1650 and then the vibration started again and fuel started to sprinkle a little on the windshield.
I stopped the engine, took a look and the float valve overflow lines were full of fuel and had been spitting out in the direction of the windscreen. At that point we decided we didn't know enough to continue and I should post here.
I did go back out again yesterday to see if running it for a while would see the problem through but I couldn't even start it (part of me wonders if the battery isn't fully charged after such a long time without starting).
So I'm curious if people can suggest why the float valve might overflow? Everything had been working great before the break, start first time, purr like a kitten. And, more importantly, ideas for getting it running properly again?
Thanks,
Paul
Due to some travel my 912ULS hadn't been started in about 5 weeks, so I went out and drained the gas and put new gas, went to start it up and it was hard. But got it started and did some taxiing - with a lot of vibration under 2000 rpm, everything good higher than that. Came back to the hangar and put throttle to idle and revs dropped to 400 and then the engine quit. Not good.
Went back next day with someone who knows more about engines than me and we discovered that the throttle cable on one of the carbs was buckled a bit and so we weren't mechanically in sync any more. We took care of that, started the plane up (not first time but not as hard as the previous day) and it was running great, idling at 1650 and then the vibration started again and fuel started to sprinkle a little on the windshield.
I stopped the engine, took a look and the float valve overflow lines were full of fuel and had been spitting out in the direction of the windscreen. At that point we decided we didn't know enough to continue and I should post here.
I did go back out again yesterday to see if running it for a while would see the problem through but I couldn't even start it (part of me wonders if the battery isn't fully charged after such a long time without starting).
So I'm curious if people can suggest why the float valve might overflow? Everything had been working great before the break, start first time, purr like a kitten. And, more importantly, ideas for getting it running properly again?
Thanks,
Paul
