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Project Zeal, Fuel System & Gauges

Since the Wellington train system can’t help but try to fall into the ocean each time there is some weather, I had some spare time today to do some more work on the bike.

Since attempting to drain the fuel tank the other day I was left with a small amount in the bottom of the tank that I just couldn’t get out of the filler neck (due to its design). The only way to get it out was to remove the fuel tap, and drain through that hole.

Removing the tap was easy enough. Two really tight, rusty screws and out it came.

Another screw on the filter and the lot comes off. That’s a tasty looking filter.

And this is what the fuel tap looked like. The tube is nice brass and cleaned up well, and the filters are intact and also cleaned up well.

This is what was sitting in the bottom of the tank

After draining it out, I took the tank out into the garden and hosed the utter shite out of it. Lots and lots of orange water poured out, so I kept flushing until the water ran clean. This is what came out of the tank. Chunky.

The great news is the inside of the tank looks awesome now. Minimal surface rust left, and there are no flakes left. Not much work to finish it off now.

It’s a damn sight better than it was.

The next part that got my attention was the fuel tap.

I cleaned off the outside of it, and then removed the two front screws and pulled the front off

And this is what greeted me inside the tap

Clearly the fuel level was at the reserve height for a while, as it was almost completely blocked with rust and scum. This is what came out of just that side of the tap

All the seals and O-Rings were flat and hardened, so out they came. New ones have been ordered from Litetek along with a carb seal kit.

When my ultrasonic cleaner arrives the tap will go in there for a proper clean, in the meantime I cleaned it up with WD40 and brake clean.

I wanted to have a quick look at the fuel pump. When I first got the bike the pump sounded like a tin of gravel being shaken and then it stopped working at all. I disconnected the pump and left it. Today I removed it for bench testing.

It seems it has an internal short. Whenever power is applied, it results in sparks and nothing else. I disassembled it to see if I could work out where the short is. Unfortunately I hit a dead-end, where I cannot access the windings for the main solenoid, so it’s a dead duck. Will try to source a good used one.

Traces of water inside the electrical cap

With that out of the way, I had to look at fixing the gauges. The tacho was almost falling off, and the chrome caps on both arent attached.

It looks like the tacho had a bump at some point, as one mount is broken off and the bracket is twisted. I pulled the gauges off and checked out the damage.

And the reason the caps aren’t attached. The mounts for the screws have been broken off both.

Some creative superglue work sees all the broken off parts re-attached. Will need to be careful with them in the future, but the superglue is pretty strong stuff.

Looks a bit naked without them

And the last fun task today, was to see if I could get a charge in the battery. Previously my charger wouldn’t even detect that a battery was connected, the voltage was so low. Today I cheated, and “jump started” the bike battery from the old Rover battery. I connected them with correct polarity (like jump starting a car). Left it for a minute or two, and then connected the charger. Zing, the charger detects it and is charging it. I checked before and with the charger disconnected im now seeing 12v at the battery.

If i can get the battery to hold a charge it’ll save me some money whilst i build the bike up. It will be replaced later on, but this will buy some time.

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