Zenith Stromberg Help

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My rover SD1 V8 has twin zenith strombergs on it. Unfortunately I'm
not familiar with them and need some advice. One morning the right
hand carb started spouting petrol even before i had started the engine
(so it was from the pressure of the petrol pump). It was coming from a
tube which has never (to my knowledge) had anything attached to it as
shown in this photograph:

http://mbconfuse.googlepages.com/ZenithStromberg.JPG

Can anyone tell me what should be attached here, any why all of a
sudden it may have sprung a leak? Thanks for any help


 
its probably an over flow. your float may be leaking.. take the float out and put it in some boiling water.
if there is a leak you will see the bubbles come out.. if its a plastic float run a hot knife over the hole, not too much or yule knacker it.. if its a brass one then a drop of solder should do the trick
 
[email protected] wrote:

> My rover SD1 V8 has twin zenith strombergs on it. Unfortunately I'm
> not familiar with them and need some advice. One morning the right
> hand carb started spouting petrol even before i had started the engine
> (so it was from the pressure of the petrol pump). It was coming from a
> tube which has never (to my knowledge) had anything attached to it as
> shown in this photograph:
>
> http://mbconfuse.googlepages.com/ZenithStromberg.JPG
>
> Can anyone tell me what should be attached here, any why all of a
> sudden it may have sprung a leak? Thanks for any help


I've forgotten where all the drillings go on that carb but the
symptoms are those of a sticky (jammed open) needle valve on that carb.

Drop the float chamber and investigate. I can't remember if this can
be done with the carb still attached to the manifold - from your photo
it looks as though it may be possible.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys, i'll have an investigate and see what
i can find. If it is a Fuel bowl vent, should it be left open and not
connected to anything?

The main reason i ask is that on the Left hand carb (not the leaky
one), the same hole is connected to the crank case breather. But the
breather on the Right side (leaky one) is connected lower down (the
black pipe in the pic).

 
[email protected] wrote:

> Thanks for the suggestions guys, i'll have an investigate and see what
> i can find. If it is a Fuel bowl vent, should it be left open and not
> connected to anything?
>
> The main reason i ask is that on the Left hand carb (not the leaky
> one), the same hole is connected to the crank case breather. But the
> breather on the Right side (leaky one) is connected lower down (the
> black pipe in the pic).


I wonder if your installation is not original.

Putting a float chamber vent into the crankcase doesn't seem very
sensible - your situation is a prime example: neat fuel into the sump!

The old Range Rover installation put them back into the air cleaner, I
think. I have an old engine which may be sufficiently complete for me
to work it out. I'll have a look over the next few days to see.

In the meantime, just leave it open to atmosphere.
 
In message <[email protected]>, Dougal
<DougalAThiskennel.free-online.co.uk@?.?.invalid> writes
>[email protected] wrote:
>
>> Thanks for the suggestions guys, i'll have an investigate and see what
>> i can find. If it is a Fuel bowl vent, should it be left open and not
>> connected to anything?
>>
>> The main reason i ask is that on the Left hand carb (not the leaky
>> one), the same hole is connected to the crank case breather. But the
>> breather on the Right side (leaky one) is connected lower down (the
>> black pipe in the pic).

One pipe goes to the rocker-cover breather via a flame trap and is
connected to the carb throat so ingests and burns any oil vapour, the
other (smaller one) vents the fuel bowl and, if the needle valve fails,
fuel.
>
>In the meantime, just leave it open to atmosphere.


Should have a pipe on each leading to the ground - mine lead to just
behind the front x-member. If they vent directly to air and decide to
leak neat fuel can sit on the valley which can then prompt the rapid
evacuation followed by the use of an extinguisher through the radiator
grille!

--
AndyG
 
Ah right, so would you suggest that the carb on the right hand side of
this photo:

http://mbconfuse.googlepages.com/ZenithStromberg1.JPG

has got the breather attached to the wrong drilling? From what people
have been saying that is the case. I guess it should be attached to
the drilling on the other side of the carb which is hidden round the
back (like on the carb on the left of the photo).


> One pipe goes to the rocker-cover breather via a flame trap and is
> connected to the carb throat so ingests and burns any oil vapour, the
> other (smaller one) vents the fuel bowl and, if the needle valve fails,
> fuel.
> >
> >In the meantime, just leave it open to atmosphere.

>
> Should have a pipe on each leading to the ground - mine lead to just
> behind the front x-member. If they vent directly to air and decide to
> leak neat fuel can sit on the valley which can then prompt the rapid
> evacuation followed by the use of an extinguisher through the radiator
> grille!
>
> --
> AndyG


 
Dougal wrote:

> [email protected] wrote:
>
>> Thanks for the suggestions guys, i'll have an investigate and see what
>> i can find. If it is a Fuel bowl vent, should it be left open and not
>> connected to anything?
>>
>> The main reason i ask is that on the Left hand carb (not the leaky
>> one), the same hole is connected to the crank case breather. But the
>> breather on the Right side (leaky one) is connected lower down (the
>> black pipe in the pic).

>
>
> I wonder if your installation is not original.
>
> Putting a float chamber vent into the crankcase doesn't seem very
> sensible - your situation is a prime example: neat fuel into the sump!
>
> The old Range Rover installation put them back into the air cleaner, I
> think. I have an old engine which may be sufficiently complete for me to
> work it out. I'll have a look over the next few days to see.
>
> In the meantime, just leave it open to atmosphere.


I have the pipes and they just vented the float chambers to atmosphere
well clear of interesting places such as Andy describes.

You need to check the connections on the LH carb. They seem to have
become interchanged from your description(difficult in view of the the
sizes I would have thought).

The float chamber vents are the ones in the inlet adaptors from the
air cleaner - as marked with the arrow on your photo.
The crankcase breathers (rocker cover) go via the flame traps to the
connection on the main carb body nearest the manifold - as in your
photo for the RH carb. On the LH carb that'll likely be on the
bulkhead side of the carb.
 
[email protected] wrote:

> Ah right, so would you suggest that the carb on the right hand side of
> this photo:
>
> http://mbconfuse.googlepages.com/ZenithStromberg1.JPG
>
> has got the breather attached to the wrong drilling? From what people
> have been saying that is the case. I guess it should be attached to
> the drilling on the other side of the carb which is hidden round the
> back (like on the carb on the left of the photo).


Yes. The crankcase breather should connect to the stub on the bulkhead
side of the LH carb(RH in photo) much closer to the manifold as on the
leaky carb.
 

"Dougal" <DougalAThiskennel.free-online.co.uk> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> [email protected] wrote:
>
>> Thanks for the suggestions guys, i'll have an investigate and see what
>> i can find. If it is a Fuel bowl vent, should it be left open and not
>> connected to anything?
>>
>> The main reason i ask is that on the Left hand carb (not the leaky
>> one), the same hole is connected to the crank case breather. But the
>> breather on the Right side (leaky one) is connected lower down (the
>> black pipe in the pic).

>
> I wonder if your installation is not original.
>
> Putting a float chamber vent into the crankcase doesn't seem very
> sensible - your situation is a prime example: neat fuel into the sump!
>
> The old Range Rover installation put them back into the air cleaner, I
> think. I have an old engine which may be sufficiently complete for me to
> work it out. I'll have a look over the next few days to see.
>
> In the meantime, just leave it open to atmosphere.


Sound like a rootes application ( Hillman?) some had a breather pipe back to
the air filter
Derek


 
Unfortunately work has meant that i've had to sideline the landy for a
few days, but when i get back to it i'll let you know how i get on.

Thanks to everyone for all the advice.

 
You were quite right, it was a sticky float needle. I dropped the
float chamber as suggest, which was just possible without remooving the
carb, and nothing seemed out of place. So i just pushed the float up
and down a couple of times to check it was free. When i re-assembled
the carb, it seemed to work fine. So i dont know what caused it to
stick, but at least i know what to do next time!

Thanks again.

 
[email protected] wrote:

|| So i dont know what
|| caused it to stick, but at least i know what to do next time!

Crud, which you disturbed. Repeat every 100,000 miles. :)

--
Rich
==============================

Take out the obvious to email me.


 
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