The Ceremonial First Kick

So the carb is cleaned, it’s all hooked up, and we’re ready to go! It’s almost the culminating event of the summer. It’s so full of mystery. Will it start? Will it not? Will it catch on fire? It’s exciting.

Here we go:

Ok. So it didn’t start. I’m not surprised or dissapointed. In the course of doing this, I found out some important things.

1. It is getting spark. At first it was weak, but I adjusted the ground and my little tester lit up bright. This is crucial because I was worried I didn’t have it wired right. I put it back the way I found it and there was no telling if it was hooked up right in the first place. But I had to guess where the ground went because none of that was hooked up.

2. The carburetor was leaking like a sieve. The “float” is supposed to close the fuel line off when the carburetor is full of fuel. But it was filling up with fuel, wouldn’t float, and wouldn’t raise the needle to close the chamber. The chamber floods and then the engine floods. 

I called Casa Lambretta and they said they don’t have any new floats. They also said that most replacements are not a good fit. I’m not sure I wanted to pay $20 for a new one anyway. I’m going to try to seal it with some stuff I borrowed from a friend. It may just be a temporary fix…

Now I have to wait for the float to dry out. It’s been 4 days already and it still has fuel in it. Just a waiting game…