After the first drive with no problems it seemed the thing to do was to keep driving the car and find any other problems there might be. Of course on the second drive I went a little further than the first, with water in the coolant system this time. I then proceeded to bog down 500 yards from the house. Thankfully it was all downhill... except the driveway.
Of course this breakdown happened 30 minutes before I needed to leave for the airport, we worked quickly and figured out no fuel was getting through the lines, so a dash of gas straight into the carburetor rolled the engine for a few ticks. During this process Scott tried to use a Styrofoam cup as a funnel... to pour gas. For those of you who don't have any kind of pyrotechnic streak: gas melts Styrofoam and creates a substance almost identical to Napalm. We couldn't get the car up the hill and so threw a tarp over it and left for the airport, with Napalm on Scott's hands: a recipe for success.
After the weekend we got the car up the hill with my brother leaning over the engine spraying starting fluid into the carb as I floored it up the hill, I wish I had a video of the shenanigans.
Once the car was back in the garage I took the whole fuel delivery system off and blew out the lines with WD-40, that didn't solve the problem, still no fuel was passing through the lines. I took both the in-line filter and in-carb filter out and cleaned them both off thoroughly. Then I put a line on either side of the fuel pump to see if that was the problem, no fuel passed through. I took the flex line between the hard line from the tank to the fuel pump off. Blew it out with WD-40 as well. Then Scott blew in the gas tank filler to pressurize the system, we got a solid clean flow through the hard line. So I'd isolated the problem to the fuel pump.
The fuel pump then bolted off and I took it apart. Thankfully it's a mechanical pump not an electrical one, so there are very few moving parts. I took the pump apart and found it had an internal filter, full of rust worse than either of the other filters. I cleaned out all the rust, WD-40'd the entire assembly scrapped off more of the silicone the previous owner puts EVERYWHERE, added my own liquid gasket, and bolted it back on.
A cleaned, rebuilt fuel pump installed I turned the engine over, gas pumped through for a moment and the engine fired into life.
Hi colin I know this is an old post but my girlfriend inherited a 74 Sonett from her father and i’m in the process of trying to get it running. It’s sat since the 80’s but otherwise is in really good shape. I’m currently working through all the obvious areas and want to replace the fuel lines. Oddly one is cut and plugged with a bolt so i figure i may as well replace them all. I was wondering if you have source where i can find the lines and the lengths i’d need? You seem to be the only one doing in depth work on these things (at least that has an online presence) so i figured i’d ask. Thanks!
ReplyDelete-Joe
Hey Joe,
Deleteas far as fuel lines I replaced mine somewhere along the line as well. I ran hard line from the tank through the cabin on the floor, through the firewall, took a 90° turn under the trans and then another 90° towards the front of the car. Put a barbed fitting and had about a foot of soft line to the fuel pump, soft line from the other side to the carb.
Now in retrospect I would run the line UNDER the passenger compartment instead of copying what was there. I would drill a hole and use a grommet to pass the hard line through the pan and run it under the car. I'm fact with the motor and tank currently out of the car I will probably do that this time.
I don't remember the sizing on the line but that isn't super critical. Take the line off that's capped and carry that to a parts store to figure out what threading/fitting is on the tank, get that fitting in whatever size line you choose. Fuel line I believe typically comes in 3/16" all the way through like 5/16" off the shelf, and you can special order even bigger online. Again though it's a 1.7L (since yours is a 74) motor, the line isn't going to be the limiting factor at 65-70hp.
Most of the tools to bend and flare line yourself are pretty inexpensive, and most parts stores I believe even have them in their loaner tool programs if you don't want to buy them. I would suggest going that route and make your line custom instead of buying the off the shelf straight pieces and joining then together, more fittings means more places for leaks and in the Sonett it's basically a straight shot from the tank to the the pump.
If you need more specifics leave another comment and I'll try to get some measurements or take some specific pictures for you when I re-do mine.
Colin,
DeleteThanks for the reply! Is there any way to message you directly through your blog? You seem to be the only one online that know sonetts and reliable forums seem to be nonexistant. That is if you’re open to questions. Either way thanks for the reply!
-Joe
Joe,
ReplyDeleteI've got this site set up to email me when a new comment is posted, for better or worse there isn't a whole lot of traffic here so I try to respond to everything when I see the email. So leaving comments here is a pretty good way to get in contact, if we need more than that I can message you my email (rather avoid spam posting it).