Leaking fuel taps

[wristpin]

It’s that time of year when some of us discover that the cork plunger in a Ewart fuel tap has shrunk. Someone that I know says that he revives them by immersion in boiling water but I’ve never had much luck. Before anyone says that one should remove the plungers and keep them wet over winter, I know, but …….! I’ve noticed that Villiers Parts claim to have solved the issue with look alike O ring tap and I was considering solving the problem for good by converting a couple of my machines. However I’ve recently read that the O ring taps are not without issue as the rings tend to get nipped where they pass the inlet port and leak just the same.
Has anyone any experience of the O ring taps ?

[davidbliss]

I can see why the O rings are not a fix and forget as taps wear in use and wouldn’t accommodate the wear. If the taps are not fully on or off the O ring is allowed to expand and if then pushed fully home it can cut a bits out of the O ring, it all so happens to the modern ball valves if not turned fully on or off and left. Whats wrong with keeping them wet with fuel, I still have original tanks in as new condition and began life and used for over 100 years, found the two-strokes gave less trouble so the oil must have helped and often tap parts could be screwed up to expand the corks, where the later taps were fixed and throw away, I have laid up some for nearly forty years all I did then was do a 50-50 mix of oil and lamp oil paraffin spraying it in and left, if not too late it even seems to keep the die-cast carburettor parts in better order as any jets can be very difficult to remove after sitting dry for many years and the metal corrodes and expands.

[andyfrost]

Angus , personally I would stick to the corks , I try to make a habit of regularly starting my machines around every three weeks ,and run them for a couple of minutes. I find this keeps your corks OK. The downfall of this is of course remembering to keep the habit up.The alternative is to run all the fuel out of tank and carb , then remove the plunger and leave in paraffin over the storage period.
The MUST rule is NEVER USE E10 petrol , it will eat corks quicker than you can put them in.

Andy.

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