It’s in the Garage!
October 16, 2006
I don’t know why I did it, why this Sunday and not last, or next Sunday? Why not the numerous sundays previous or possible Sundays to come? The garage was nearly all clear, and I rememberd an old old Pratts petrol can sitting under the stairs (where else?) so what was stopping me? So I drove down to the petrol station with my pre-war petrol can and filled it up with 10 litres of finest unleaded. Drove back with the windows open.
The aim of the day then would be to get the Trabant at least firing, see what happens after that. I was quite hopefull too, we had charactised the problems last year when we had first put the engine in. Just to recap (as it was such a long time ago!), we managed only to get the engine running if we first poured neat petrol into the carburetter float chamber. It would run for 5-10 minutes and then give up. Likewise, if we stopped the engine before it gave up and then tried to start it again hours later then there would be no joy. It took a little while to get to the bottom of this but it was soon clear that I had maybe put a little bit too much oil in the petrol and the spark plugs were simply coated with oil and had little to ignite off of.
First job for the day then was to emtpy the tank of the very oilly petrol. I pulled the petrol hose off at the input to the flowmeter (whoops, is this supposed to just pull off, I’m sure it’s not) and let it trickle out to a tray I placed underneath. The dipstick showed that there was only two litres left in the tank but it took a good 15 minutes for the very red oilly petrol to run out. I then filled it with 10 litres of petrol and 200ml of oil.
I took one of my freely obtained batteries off the shelf in the garage and placed it in the car. These have been trickle charged off a solar panel on the roof for the last six months and so should both be fully charged and ready to do. I turned the key and around and around the starter turned the engine. Fast fast fast, but nothing. Which was not too much of a suprise as I expected the carbretter would still be full of the very oilly petrol. I took the spark plugs out and they were dry, which was a bit unexpected.
Some may say that to take the lid off the top of the carbretter float chamber bit means you need to take all the tin work off the engine first and possibly the carb off with it. Fortunatly for me I have small hands and small fingers and so I was able to undo the four bolts that hold the lid in without removing anything else. It took a while, espically the rear right bolt. Physically removing the lid too takes a little bit of moving about so that you have clearence to get the lid and the float underneath it clear of the rest of the carb, space is limited but a couple of wriggles and you get it out.
Looking into the float chamber and it was half full of oily petrol. I was a bit concerned about why it had not refilled with the new petrol but in the meantime I simply pulled off the petrol hose from the flowmeter again (note to myself to make sure I tighten that up) and filled up the chamber that way. Put the lid back on and again some pretty tight usage with the spanner to tighten the four bolts.
I turned the key and it turned over and over. I took my hand off the key, but just as I did I heard the faint sound of the engining coming to life. Quickly, I put my foot on the floor and pulled out the choke and with a big roar and masses of smoke the Trabant was alive! Fantastic. I jumped out and watched the smoke screen float down the road. I jumped back in again and revved the engine a bit to “clear the system out”. By now the A259 by my house was one mass of white smoke but the Trabant was ticking over nicely as if it had been in constant use for years. I turned the key off, the noise stopped and just small trails of smoke were trickling from the exhuast until this too finally stopped.
So far, all good news and all following the pattern that I had seen before. Although I was happy to see/hear/smell the Trabant engine running, I was in no way suprised. What I needed to do was to see if once started it would carry on, and then start again an hour later. I turned the key again and it started so quickly. This time no smoke, just the put-put-put-put of the 2-stroke ticking over. Foot on the floor a bit and listen to the engine racing, then back to idle. Daringly I put the car into reverse gear and it slowly started to move backwards. I put it into first, and it slowly started to move forwards. I put my foot on the brake and quickly rememberd that not only had not not yet blead the brakes after fitting new brake cylinders, but also I had disconnected the rear brakes (awaiting new pipes and currently blocked off with threaded bungs). Nothing happpened until I the brake pedal was mostly on the floor and then I felt the car slowly come to a halt. Amazing how little brake power you have on the front wheels only I thought as I put it back into revervse and repeated it again. One small step for a Trabant - one giant leap for Trabant-kind.
I left the car ticking over for a good 20 minute while I tidied up and moved bits and peices in the garage. It was now or never I thought, the idea of getting the Trabant in the garage seemed like a good one.
I slowly drove it in, amazed at how big a Trabant can be when trying to get it into a garage. Good job I am pretty thin I thought as I attempted to open the drives door only to find it opened to a small gap, being stopped by a spare gearbox that just happened to be sitting on the floor.
That’s it. All in the garage, a tight tight fit, but it’s in. I will have to clear out more bits from the garage before I think of doing any work on it. I removed the carpet and the felt underneath. It was soaking wet in places and the carpet was growing a nice crop of something green on top of it.
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