T16 restoration starts in earnest

[eddy8men]

finished to my usual high standards

[andrew honychurch]

Well I made it. 22 miles all under her own steam she is now parked up at War and Peace getting rained on. I cannot help but think after what was a mammoth effort to get the T16 there, that I should have left it at home. Basically she ran and drives really well, except when its been running for about 10 minutes it gets fuel starvation and stops. Usually on a corner as this is where I ask for power to turn around and therefore we stop and block the road on a bend. Great! I have a new electruc fuel pump and all new filter and lines, but the original tanks. Both have been throroughly cleaned but still have some dirt getting into the filters. I reckon my problem is that the electric fuel pump maybe too high up to manage to pull the fuel fom the bottom of the tank right the way to the filter next to the driver and then back to the pump and filter king and onto the carb. Of course it could have vaporization issues but I would have thought the electric pump would have overcome this?? All ideas much appreciated, but I will definitely be trailering it home. 22 miles on the road in a Carrier is far enough for me! I felt sure the tracks were visibly wearing down as well.

photo on route with father in the background

[carrierbarry]

Well done !!

Go around the stalls and buy a Bren Carrier Drivers badge to put on your jacket.
You have earned it.

Barry

[hrpearce]

Andrew Great work.
A simple test to see if the pump is underpreforming is to hang a bottle of fuel about 3 ft. above the carby and take a run, if preformance improves it's the pump if not you have to look further. A drench backpack makes the ideal container. Hope this is of help.

[andrew honychurch]

thanks for the thoughts and advice guys. I think I am going to leave working this out until after W and P as I am loading it home and I can fiddle around with it to my hearts content once back here. I reckon it is the head on the pump being too much. I read the instructions again for the Facet cylinder pump and it reckons that the pump needs to be within 12 inches of the tank and as the push rather better than pull I am sure I am asking it to do the impossible. I may yet be coupling up the original spec mechanical AC! I am also wondering about the unions I made for the fuel tank tops. The pick up is a long pipe with just one hole at the bottom. Therefore if there is much in the pipe you will have problems, plus the top of this pick up is an inverted nipple. I had to make union for this by using a straight nipple and braising onto another one as it has to come out at 90 degrees to clear the tool box bracket above. All in all, its back to the drawing board, but I am sure I can fix it. Meanwhile I am off to look for that badge to sew on my jacket!

[stephen crowhurst]

Well done Andrew

Sorry I missed you yesterday at the show.
Even though I had done a lot of under 5 mile runs over the years, I found that the first long run I did in my carrier, the tracked streched. I think this was due to all the crap that had built up over the years coming out and hope not to wearing out as after re-ajusting it has been ok.
Have a good show.

Stephen

[andrew honychurch]

thanks Stephen. Actually the tracks did loosen up quite a bit over that mileage even though I had tighened them up just before. The whole exercise was most enjoyable and when she was running correctly it was evident that it is well sorted and designed machine. JUst off back up to the rally field now.