Saturday 4 September 2010

I need a fuel primer

Paul Bailey said that Paramotorists always drain their carbs when they pack up, but I'd naively imagined that was because they were planning to put their equipment flat in their cars and didn't want it dripping on their seats.

One thing I don't get is, if you have to refuel each time, why don't Bailey's provide primers on the fuel system? One of my correspondents is an electrical engineer and he is very unhappy with the fact that I have to keep a finger on the starter for longer at
start-up to pump fuel to the carb. Apart from being a heavy load on the battery, it must put a heat strain on the wiring loom.

The manual says you shouldn't have your finger on the button for longer than 5 seconds but past experience showed that 5 seconds wasn't long enough to lift the fuel. Ben advised me to turn over for up to a minute
. He said, "pissing in the wind is better than 5-second bursts". I drained a battery doing those...with Steve timing me, religiously.

I thought I had solved this problem, now that I am
hangering, by leaving fuel in the system...but this week's drama has taught me a lesson: I need to drain the system (keeping the fuel in an unvented container) and refuel each time, and . . ..

I need a primer.

They don't appear to be easy to get from aviation suppliers, but would probably be ludicrously expensive if they were, but I have found them on marine supply sites for about £5.

An image search on Google suggests that I'd just cut my fuel line above the filter and insert the bulb between the filter and the pump/carburetter.

Thoughts, anyone?




1 comment:

Colin said...

All good stuff!
What Octane are you using? I notice again on Bailey mainsite normally the engines are set for 98 Octane? Regular unleaded I believe is about 95. How do you drain the fuel out of the Carb' float chamber? sounds like a pain in the *rse. Also I would have thought start and warm up would purge any 'vented'?? carb fuel through?

Surprised it is that critical of fuel quality..unless your octane is already low.