Trying to start '68 912 after sitting 2 years

[Sparrow]

Hello there. I have decided to begin working on my '68 912 after it has been in the garage for a couple of years. I have a problem firing her up. I can pour gas into the carb, and she'll fire for a sec. But that is all. Any help or ideas would be great. Thanks.

[Green 912]

First, please stop pouring gas into the carbs! That will wash the oil out of the cylinders and trash the rings fast. The fuel system is most likely clogged up with dried crud from the gas evaporating in the carbs, pump and lines. Old gas gums up everything. Tanks rust fuel pump diagrams dry rot, carbs clog up and so on.

Get 5 foot or so of fuel line a coffee can and a can of fresh gas. Unhook the fuel line from the intake side of the pump and rig up a hose to a can of FRESH gas. Unhook the fuel line from the output side of the pump and install a hose to a coffee can and then have a friend crank the car some. Don’t crank more than 10 to 20 seconds at a time and let the starter cool some in between crank ups. Look at the gas that comes out if some comes out. If you got gas and it looks clean without chunks of crud coming from the pump then hook the output side back up and see it you can start it. It will take some time to fill the carbs up. If it starts and runs hook up the input fuel line AFTER you drain the old gas from the tank. Old gas is BAD for old air-cooled motors. If you have compressed air, remove any filter and gently blow the fuel line out. If no gas rebuild the fuel pump.

If doesn’t start look to see if gas is flowing in the carbs. Just pump the throttle lever while looking into the carb (motor not cranking) to see if the accelerator pump is squirting gas or not. If not you don’t have enough gas in the carbs, if so you got other carb problems. Most of the time when you get fresh gas to a set of gummed carbs the car will start and then just run like crap. Sometimes letting a set of dried out carbs set overnight with fresh gas in them seems to soften things up and the car will run better the next day. If any of the cylinders are running lean don’t drive the car, as you can burn up a valve or piston pretty quick.

Good luck.

[Duke]

Have you taken the carbs off & boiled them out? If the carbs were not drained before storage you probably have a lot of gunk in the passageways that may be restricting the flow of fuel. Ask me how I know? Also was your gas tank left with a full tank of fuel or a partial tank? If the latter you could have a lot of condensation in your fuel. If the fuel is old I would drain the tank and start with fresh fuel. Check the fuel pump diaphragm also. May be hard as a rock.