It’s starting to annoy me
A bunch of bikes failing to burst into life has Rick suspecting stale petrol could be the problem...
ISYMPATHISED with Andy Reynolds’ BSA B40 starting query last month. I seem to have had starting issues with all my rebuilds lately – Perry Barwick’s BSA and then this month a 1937 Rudge I’ve been building. It came with neither magneto nor carb; I fitted a spare mag I’ve never used but sparks well, and built up an Amal Concentric carb of the right size from bits. It’s a much newer carb than the bike, but it’d do to get it going. Except it didn’t...
I tried another Concentric (previously on the Trifield), then the Monobloc I’ve built up for the Trifield – still nothing. Everything else seemed right and non-starting can only be down to fuel or ignition: ie blockages, wrong mixture, weak compression, lost spark or mis-timing. It’s a fresh rebuild, so what’s happening?
I was getting desperate and squirted a bit of oil down the bore to aid compression – it fired up immediately and ran well. Huh!? Maybe the recent heat had allowed the assembly oil to dry up? But a few days later it wouldn’t start again. I tried a known-good magneto... nothing.
I borrowed a carb off the Norvin and it started and ran fine, but then a few days later nothing again. It still isn’t resolved and I’m fighting the temptation to pull it all apart in case I’ve made some mistake – I’m sure I haven’t and besides it runs fine when it wants to...
All I can think is I’ve had problems with stale fuel before and since this is a post-lockdown problem could we currently be working through a stockpile of slightly stale petrol? I’ve had no problem with my regular bikes, but maybe it makes first starts more difficult. Let me know if you’ve suffered the same... please!
‘I SEEM TO HAVE HAD STARTING ISSUES WITH ALL MY REBUILDS LATELY