DiploStrat
Expedition Leader
If you have been following ...
You know that we recently suffered the ignominy of being towed into Overland EXPO East with a dead starter - following multiple engine stalls. Fifty years of doing this and I have NEVER failed to get a truck running. I'm turning in my man card.
Several tows and a new starter later ...
Back home, I was able to drop the tank. In this process I was helped by a Bosch fuel injection expert, a tow company owner with years of Euro truck experience, and the owner of the Northern Virginia shop who has worked on our campers for years. We had side bets going as to whether we would find something in the tank, or if the problem had been a mystery air lock of some kind.
Sooooooo. First we peeled off all of the faring to get at the tank.
Then, we looked inside. Yup. Lots of fuel!
Then, as we pumped the fuel out, we could see that the metal take up for the Webasto Dual Top had scarred the bottom of the tank, and that there was a screw inside, but what is that up at the top of the picture, near the white fuel take up tube?
Then, as the fuel level dropped, we could see more clearly. But what could we see? Well, a screw, for a start. And some flakes of something.
Whatever it was, it was large and ugly!
It appeared to be a piece of paper towel.
Not one piece but two!
It is not surprising that the truck lost power. It is amazing that it did not simply stop dead. All I can guess is that the toweling remained mostly intact and was not actually sucked up into the tube. but merely blocked it from time to time, before sloshing away long enough the let us keep driving. When the RPMs dropped low enough, the reduced suction must have let fuel flow again, until the starter was finally overheated.
Finally, based on the recommendations of some of our Ozzie Bubbas, I added a small fuel pump and filter with an on/off switch powered from the camper battery. This made re-priming the whole system very easy.
The paper towel must have gone in at the same time as the tank was mounted, which is also probably when the screw fell in.
I was hoping to find something real and solid in the tank, and not some form of mystery air lock. But I was expecting perhaps a flake of rust, or similar. Not huge hunks of toweling!
Hopefully, the problem is solved. What next?
You know that we recently suffered the ignominy of being towed into Overland EXPO East with a dead starter - following multiple engine stalls. Fifty years of doing this and I have NEVER failed to get a truck running. I'm turning in my man card.
Several tows and a new starter later ...Back home, I was able to drop the tank. In this process I was helped by a Bosch fuel injection expert, a tow company owner with years of Euro truck experience, and the owner of the Northern Virginia shop who has worked on our campers for years. We had side bets going as to whether we would find something in the tank, or if the problem had been a mystery air lock of some kind.
Sooooooo. First we peeled off all of the faring to get at the tank.
Then, we looked inside. Yup. Lots of fuel!
Then, as we pumped the fuel out, we could see that the metal take up for the Webasto Dual Top had scarred the bottom of the tank, and that there was a screw inside, but what is that up at the top of the picture, near the white fuel take up tube?
Then, as the fuel level dropped, we could see more clearly. But what could we see? Well, a screw, for a start. And some flakes of something.
Whatever it was, it was large and ugly!
It appeared to be a piece of paper towel.
Not one piece but two!
It is not surprising that the truck lost power. It is amazing that it did not simply stop dead. All I can guess is that the toweling remained mostly intact and was not actually sucked up into the tube. but merely blocked it from time to time, before sloshing away long enough the let us keep driving. When the RPMs dropped low enough, the reduced suction must have let fuel flow again, until the starter was finally overheated.
Finally, based on the recommendations of some of our Ozzie Bubbas, I added a small fuel pump and filter with an on/off switch powered from the camper battery. This made re-priming the whole system very easy.
The paper towel must have gone in at the same time as the tank was mounted, which is also probably when the screw fell in.
I was hoping to find something real and solid in the tank, and not some form of mystery air lock. But I was expecting perhaps a flake of rust, or similar. Not huge hunks of toweling!
Hopefully, the problem is solved. What next?
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All I can guess is that it went in the tank when it was mounted as I certainly never put it in and I am the only one who has ever filled the tank since I bought the truck. Bit of a mystery.
