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Starting Issues

71HorseInLB

Newbie
Joined
Oct 20, 2018
Messages
11
My 71 has trouble starting. If it sits for a few days or week, it will take 1-2 minutes of cranking until it ultimately starts. Today, I sprayed some gas into the carburetor today and it started right up. Obviously then its a fuel problem, but where to start? Fuel filter, fuel pump, accelerator pump,....? Help
 

DirtDonk

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Nov 3, 2003
Messages
47,721
This is kind of normal for a carburetor and modern fuels. They evaporate out of the float bowl and the pump takes a minute to bring fresh fuel back up from the tank.

If it was not doing this before, did you change anything under the hood, such as the air filter housing?
If it worked fine before, and you have not made any changes to the setup, then maybe the pump is getting old, the fuel is getting more volatile with a different summer mix (do they make the summer mix more or less volatile?), or maybe they have not changed over in your area but the weather is heating up.

Probably other things can cause it as well, but those seem to be some basics.
Have you owned older carbureted vehicles before this one? How old is the gas? How long has it been since a tune-up? Is the tank at a lower level than before, or about the same?

Good luck.

Paul
 

DirtDonk

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Nov 3, 2003
Messages
47,721
Oh, and even though it sounds like it's out of fuel from evaporation, have you tried pumping the throttle more than normal before starting it? If there is any gas left in the float bowl at all, this might put just enough into the engine to fire up more quickly.

Paul
 

SHX669

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jan 9, 2009
Messages
1,997
Like Paul said ^^^ mine used to start 1 pump and hit the key now I have to pump it twice sometimes three times before trying to start the motor.
 

blubuckaroo

Grease Monkey
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
11,795
Loc.
Ridgefield WA
1-3 minutes is a lot of cranking, even with an empty float bowl. That's really hard on your starter motor.
I have the same issue, but when I've parked for a long time, I partially fill the float bowl with fuel using one of those old pump style oil cans through the bowl vent. Then one pump, and the engine starts on the first bump.

An option is to use an electric fuel pump, and let it prime the carb before cranking.
 
OP
OP
7

71HorseInLB

Newbie
Joined
Oct 20, 2018
Messages
11
Turns out it was the accelerator pump. Opened up and cleaned out. Starts almost first time every time. Thanks everyone
 
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