Over the past month i've been working through a huge list of problems on the yellow shit heap & am now at the point where it is in a driveable state (i didn't mention 'legal'). Up until now i've only driven it in & out of the garage - but the other night i brought it back home (using private roads) & it soon became apparent all is not well...

It starts instantly & idles lovely, but as soon as you move off it hesitates like buggery. Backing off on the throttle helps a touch - my first thought was fuel starvation & the pipe on top of the sender unit... I've pulled the fuel pipe off the carb & turned the engine over & it all appears ok; fuel shoots a fair old distance. The points & condensor i changed last night & timed it up, that's made no difference so i'm even more inclined to think it's fuel related.

As it's chucking it down outside & i don't fancy dropping the tank in the rain i opted to whip the top off the carb & have a looksie. First thing i notice is there's a lot of sh1t in the float bowl, kinda like fine rust/sand & i undid the 14mm brass nut on the front & struggled to get the little filter out - it was also silted up badly & i think that's why the filter didn't just pull out.

It's a '79 2cv6 & still packs it's original metal fuel tank & is not wearing a inline filter (yet). Is it worth me sacking the old tank off & replacing it with a plastic job?

That's certainly a lot of crap in your carb and won't help the running. If you have a plastic tank that you know is clean [even the plastic ones get full of crap from the fuel] then its worth a change. But an in line filter is a must and change it regularly. Get that rubbish out and it should run a lot better.

It looks like water has been sitting there for a while. I would strip the entire carburetor, spray carbi-clean in to all canals maybe soak it over night and blow it with compressed air. Should do the job unless accelerator pump is buggered.

Drop the metal tank and clean out the rust when you can.

A select of bolts applied vigorously to the inside and then washed out should stop you sucking up the crap.

unless your a stickler for originality put a plastic tank in, it will give you a usefull extra 5l fuel range as well as eliminating the crap

if its a car thats been stood a while you get condensation in the tank and thats what it looks like

Sean

Thanks chaps. I've cleaned the float bowl, blown the jets through, reset the float height (which was all to cock) & tigthened all 4 of the carb to manifold nuts & am pleased to report it now has the abilty to accelerate up the road! actually goes quite well!

Tomorrow i'll drop the tank, filter the fuel out, clean it out as best i can, remove the fuel pump & change the pipe & fit an inline filter.

Heard people use sand (or something like that, stones orso) to get rid of the rust in a metal tank.. Put some in the tank, close the holes and than shake it a lot... Then a good clean, than put a fuelproof coating in it, like tankcure: http://www.tankcure.com/Engels/introuk.html

Well done. Remember to fit the fuel filter before the pump and not between the pump and carbi

Neil,
in my motorcycling days, we'd use a couple of handfuls of gravel in a tank to scour out any rust.
Add a few pints of water and shake it all about for a few minutes, then off to the garage to blow the tank out with an air line...

While you've got the pump off, it'd be worth removing its cover, as I bet there'll be a fair bit of debris lodged in the first chamber.
The first time you did a good fast run, that would most probably end up at the carb.

ken

I think someone in a village down the road recently cleaned the tank of one of his M'bikes. He dried the last of the water out with a blowtorch. Not recommended. Esp if you like eyebrows, skin and your garage roof.