Carburettor leak

Hi

Recently bought a refurbished solex 31 pict 3 carb from gerrit at rage 1 in Holland after fitting it and taking the bus for a run out yesterday I noticed a small leak around the inlet pipe at the top of the carb can’t seem to fathom it out as the pipe is tight and it’s the aircooled works fuel pipe so I know it can’t be that any ideas fellas!? It also does it when the engine isn’t running so maybe the float needle is getting stuck!?

Is the barb in the carb itself tight? Seen a couple of carbs from Rage have that issue.

Is that a jubilee clip I can see there? Plus that pipe looks large, or is that because I just blew up the photo. Even if the float and needle combination were playing up, it could only leak past the needle and it would possibly flood but only into the manifold and then into the bore. This looks to be an external leak as opposed to an internal leak.

Ozziedog,,,,, keep us posted too :mrgreen:

I’ll have to check the pipe (barb) that enters the carburettor make sure it’s tight the fuel pipe is the aircooled works 6mm pipe and clips they supply with the fit and forget kit it seems weird as it seems to seep from the side of the fitting and also when the engine is turned off it leaks for 10 mins or so then stops after a few wipes I’ve emailed gerrit from rage see what he’s got to say will let ya know cheers fellas

6mm fuel pipe is too big, it needs to be 5.5mm or it will leak.

Hi sorry just checked it is 5.5 not 6mm apologies

I’d be surprised if that Jubilee clip was supplied by VW Aircooled works. It is far too large when you look at how much of the band has come out of the back of the clip. That will be designed for a much larger diameter pipe and you may have the problem that the clamp section is too long and not following the radius of your fuel hose. As such, it won’t be giving a proper clamping force all the way round the hose, and tightening it further can make it worse. Ideally replace it with a proper-sized fuel hose clamp.

It will leak when you shut your engine is off because that line is under pressure and the carb isn’t pulling fuel through. The weep will be that pressure dropping away.

I got the “ fit and forget “ kit from air cooled plus the solenoid cut off. Really impressed however I also got the clips as per Darrens photo. Not impressed at all with the clips which frankly I found flimsy and really difficult to get a proper grip a( in fact many of them sheared as soon as torsion was applied ). Put some proper fuel line clips.

Hi
Karlos you were bang on mate the top of the carburettor has a fault in that pipe somewhere. I had another original solex top piece in the shed which I tried and no leak what so ever im going to send it back to rage and get him to sort it bit disappointed as it was a refurbished unit and didn’t really expect to have problems with it.

The fuel clips ARE from vw aircooled works as I said they came with the ‘fit and forget kit’ I do see what ya mean thou Moseley they do have a long tail on em and don’t look right I think I might change them for some different ones!

Cheers for all ya help as always fellas

Just ordered these fuel clips from volksbolts expensive but look a bit more like it

It’s a shame as other than that his carbs are perfect! I’ve got 1 on my own beetle which has been spot on. Fitted it 5 yrs ago and have literally never touched it since but I’ve fitted possibly a dozen or more Rage carbs to customers engines and 3 have had this issue. The first 1 I found I put down to bad luck but it’s fairly common, I still suggest them but always check them for that. He’s a reasonable fellow, I’m sure he’ll sort it.

Darren2030 said:

Hi
Karlos you were bang on mate the top of the carburettor has a fault in that pipe somewhere. I had another original solex top piece in the shed which I tried and no leak what so ever im going to send it back to rage and get him to sort it bit disappointed as it was a refurbished unit and didn’t really expect to have problems with it.

The fuel clips ARE from vw aircooled works as I said they came with the ‘fit and forget kit’ I do see what ya mean thou Moseley they do have a long tail on em and don’t look right I think I might change them for some different ones!

Cheers for all ya help as always fellas [emoji119]

Click to expand...

Glad you got it sorted. Given how much promotion goes into those kits, that has indeed surprised me that they are the supplied clips. They look pretty crap and ill-fitting. Can’t go wrong with some proper branded fuel hose clips.


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Are the pump pipes able to be secured with loctite to fix them?
Seems to be a regular problem that crops up, usually it’s carb inlet pipes coming loose. Maybe because the fuel lines are difficult to remove, and the pipes get pulled on instead of just cutting off the fuel line off.

The Norma ABA clips are the ones I use, they don’t cut into the fuel line.

Hi

Received the carburettor back top from gerrit at rage and fitted back on the bus all tested new fuel pipe clip and sorted no leaks looks like he’d put a new inlet pipe on aswell and glued it in place.

:mrgreen:

ozziedog said:

Is that a jubilee clip I can see there? Plus that pipe looks large, or is that because I just blew up the photo. Even if the float and needle combination were playing up, it could only leak past the needle and it would possibly flood but only into the manifold and then into the bore. This looks to be an external leak as opposed to an internal leak.

Ozziedog,,,,, keep us posted too :mrgreen:

Click to expand...

thats not a jubilee clip, that theres a hose clip, nothing wrong with properly sized hose clips

davidoft said:

ozziedog said:

Is that a jubilee clip I can see there? Plus that pipe looks large, or is that because I just blew up the photo. Even if the float and needle combination were playing up, it could only leak past the needle and it would possibly flood but only into the manifold and then into the bore. This looks to be an external leak as opposed to an internal leak.

Ozziedog,,,,, keep us posted too :mrgreen:

Click to expand...

thats not a jubilee clip, that theres a hose clip, nothing wrong with properly sized hose clips

Click to expand...

.????? I thought that looked like a luvly jubbly to me, in the very first pic with the long tail hanging out, are we looking at the same picture ??? :msn4:


Ozziedog ,,,,,,,,,,, I bow to your superior knowledge if that is a fuel pipe clip :mrgreen:

That is definitely a fuel pipe clamp

ozziedog said:

davidoft said:

ozziedog said:

Is that a jubilee clip I can see there? Plus that pipe looks large, or is that because I just blew up the photo. Even if the float and needle combination were playing up, it could only leak past the needle and it would possibly flood but only into the manifold and then into the bore. This looks to be an external leak as opposed to an internal leak.

Ozziedog,,,,, keep us posted too :mrgreen:

Click to expand...

thats not a jubilee clip, that theres a hose clip, nothing wrong with properly sized hose clips

Click to expand...

.????? I thought that looked like a luvly jubbly to me, in the very first pic with the long tail hanging out, are we looking at the same picture ??? :msn4:


Ozziedog ,,,,,,,,,,, I bow to your superior knowledge if that is a fuel pipe clip :mrgreen:

Click to expand...

jubilee is a manufacturer of hose clips other hose clips are available, up until a couple of years ago they were perfectly fine until the facebook mafia started moaning about fuel fires,they were even fitted from new,( although vw didnt actually fit any to bays n beetles, the fitted correctly spec'd pipe) when most fires are electrical