BAD CARBURATION

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 146, 18 December 1919, Page 15

BAD CARBURATION

HOW IT CAN BE DEALT WITH / ■

(By "Chassis.")

The carburetter may aptly be described as the lungs of the engine. Just as a man in consumption cannot van. well, so a car cannot travel if its 'breathing apparatus is out of order. The symptoms of bad carburation are, as a rule, very definite. Misfires, sluggish running, uneven running, lack of powev up hill, popping through the carburetter, and foul exhaust are common symptoms. When a driver has reason to think that hiscarburation is at fault, the first point he should see to is that the feed is uninterrupted. To get at the seat of the trouble, he had better expose the jet, and then jerk the float spindle up and down sharply If the spirit shoots, through the jet strongly, he. may; take it that the feed is correct. If not he must proceed with his investigations. ■Possibly the jat may be wholly or partially choked, or there may be some foreign paiticle at the bottom of the jet which, when the engine is running, rises and partially chokes the jet, and! when it stops, drops again. For this reason the carburetter should be carefully cleaned out, and the bottom opened, so that water and dirt may be got rid of. The jet should be next examined. By looking through, it, it is generally easy to learn if it is choked. Tile obstructing material can be removed by means of a very fine wire, such as is used for tying up flowers. If the feed is still feeble, the petrol pipe should b© disconnected from the- carburetter, and the petrol tap turned on. If the petrol does not flow freely, it will be at once evident that there is a partial stoppage in the pipe. The pipe will' have to be dismantled, a.nd the obstruction removed by means of a long wire, or by blowing through with an innator connected up to the end. Extreme cases have been Icnown of the obstructing material' being so caked that the pipe had to be placed in a forge-fire, and the foreign matter absolutely burnt out, a wire being then put through it to clear away the remains. Possibly the trouble may b« found in the duct between the petrol pipe and the float chamber.' The float, too, should be examined. If it is too light, the float """will rise too soon, andi «hut the valve before the petrol his risen high enough, in the float chamber; or if if; is too heavy, or has become punctured, the float chamber will'flood, and the engine get too big a supply of spirit. The float, too, may not be evenly weighted. -In this case it will get temporarily jammed, and thus affect the proper feed of spirit. The jet itself may be at fault; it may be either too large or too small; and this ca-n be best diagnosed by experimenting, with; jets .of different sizes.