[T3] Weber Carb update

[James Lingenfelter]

  False alarm.... somewhat. Just disconnected the fuel lines from the  
carbs (had to remove the entire carb linkage/air cleaner assemblies  
just to access the hose clamps on the fuel lines). The fittings in  
the carbs are NOT loose, the fuel hoses are simply loose on the  
fittings, and no amount of tightening (or overtightening for that  
matter) of the hose clamps will secure them. I still have fuel  
seeping through at the connections. I just replaced these fuel lines  
a few months ago with the highest quality hose I could get. The  
fittings on the carbs are the type that have one rounded "barb" at  
the end of the fitting. I don't have much experience with these, I am  
mostly accustomed to the barbed fittings that I've had on numerous  
Solex carbs over the years, where once the hose is attached, you  
nearly have to cut it off to ever remove it. Should I be having this  
problem? I guess I have to replace the fuel lines to the carbs again,  
I didn't really leave enough slack to cut off the ends and reconnect.  
Is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening again?

Also, still related to the Weber carbs: The last couple of times I've  
had it running in the garage, within just a few minutes of running, a  
lot of moisture is forming around the driver side carb, mostly near  
the base it appears. When I first saw this, I thought I had a fuel  
leak somewhere, but it is apparently water.... quite a bit of it....  
enough to be running down the intake manifold after 5 minutes of  
running. What could this mean? Is something happening to cause a lot  
of condensation to form on the outside of that one carb?

BTW, the car seems to idle better than it has in some time, now that  
I have Jim Adney's plug wire set on board. Now, if I could just get  
fuel to stop spraying all over the place, I might actually get to  
drive it!

On Jul 11, 2012, at 7:40 PM, Jim Adney wrote:

> On 11 Jul 2012 at 19:05, James Lingenfelter wrote:
>
>> I have never rebuilt a Weber carb, and don't recall having one of
>> those fuel hose fittings out of the carb, so forgive my ignorance on
>> this subject; so originally these fittings are simply force fit into
>> the carb, with smooth surfaces all around, with no type of adhesive,
>> and expected to stay in? That seems a little insane and dangerous to
>> me. It's one thing on a vacuum fitting, but on a fuel line fitting
>> where looseness could result in disaster, it just seems silly.
>
> I'm not sure whether they were press fit or cast in place. My money
> would be on the former. At any rate, it worked for well beyond the
> design lifetime, so it's not surprising that some of them
> occasionally come loose after 40 years.
>
> Even now, most of them are fine until excess stress is applied to the
> fitting. Sometimes this is the weight of a fuel filter and sometimes
> it's careless tightening of a hose clamp.
>
> -- 
> *******************************
> Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
> Madison, Wisconsin, USA
> *******************************
>
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