Hi All, long time no read...
It seems that this weekend was not the best in terms of fuel related matters for me...
It all started when I decided to take the wife's 1960 Vespa out for a quick spin on Friday evening, but it died after starting on the second kick. I decided it was too late to mess with it, so I took the SL ('65 - 250 Euro Manual) and the kid for a ride around the neighborhood. When I backed the car into the garage I could smell some fuel, but I immediately chalked it off to the Vespa being flooded so I paid no more attention.
Saturday morning I took the time to completely disassemble the carburetor on the Vespa, took it apart to it's most minuscule expression, put it back together and it still would not start. After attempt number 3 at the disassemble/assemble procedure, I threw the towel. I put the carb into a box, into the trunk of the SL and drove over to a friend of mine who has a parts washer and who agreed to dip it in carb cleaner until I got a needle and gasket kit for it. When I was getting the carb from the trunk, I noticed some fuel seemed to have bled from the hoses coming from the canister on the right hand side of the car... which gave me the afternoon project to tackle.
I drove home to realize I was now looking at a major volume of fuel leaking from a return pipe from the canister that leads to the underside of the car (and that looks like it should have a hose attached to it, but no hose at all
- I'll see if I can upload a picture shortly). I also noticed the canister was making a bubbling/gurgling sound with the engine running. I pulled it and cleaned/blew it off, put it back in place and still see the same issue when the engine is running. By now it was 9 pm and I had not been out of the vapor filled garage for more than a couple hours, so I figured I'd try it on Sunday.
Sunday came around and one thing got ahead of the other. I ended up at the lake on the boat. Great evening, sunny but not too hot, water was perfect for boarding... until the engine vapor-locked. Had to be towed back to the dock
I thought monday and the new week would give me a break and the SL would not leak gas anymore, so I drove it to work and it was fine when I got there in the AM on colder weather (high 70's). However, this afternoon under much hotter weather (90's) the fuel dripping is back in full blast.
I honestly don't know where to start looking. Any hints?
Thanks in advance,
Andres G