Aprilia S1 petrol tank removal

[brian]

I am being unobservant or just not strong enough!
I want to take the tank out to see if the obstrction to the flow of petrol to the engine causing the spluttering when I have done more than 6 miles at 50MPH is at the tank as I can find nothing further on to account for it. The pump is new, carb looks clean and no debris in the glass bowl.
I have removed 3 bolts (2 at sides and one rear centre), the pipe connector to the front and the connector for the breather.
No movement at all.
Are there fixings I am missing?
Is there a knack?
Help please
In passing the inside of the tank looks immaculate as seen through the hole for my (non-existent) sender so I may be wasting my time!
Brian

[lancialulu]

I am being unobservant or just not strong enough!
I want to take the tank out to see if the obstrction to the flow of petrol to the engine causing the spluttering when I have done more than 6 miles at 50MPH is at the tank as I can find nothing further on to account for it. The pump is new, carb looks clean and no debris in the glass bowl.
I have removed 3 bolts (2 at sides and one rear centre), the pipe connector to the front and the connector for the breather.
No movement at all.
Are there fixings I am missing?
Is there a knack?
Help please
In passing the inside of the tank looks immaculate as seen through the hole for my (non-existent) sender so I may be wasting my time!
Brian

Dont know about the tank, but did you change the condenser?

[simonandjuliet]

Pretty sure that there are only 3 bolts ... and you spotted the breather pipe so it should come out

[brian]

I did fleetingly think of a coil problem but from memory it was a bit different with the B10. I did not think of condenser. If condenser, why did it splutter to a stop and then after about 10secs stopped did it restart happily and go for another 1/2ml and splutter and stop and so on home?
I am tempted to reconnect and change the electric bits. Would any 6V condenser do?

[lancialulu]

From what you are saying the condenser is unlikely. Condensers need to be matched the the coil resistance and voltage.....

[chriswgawne]

Brian,
Having re-read your post, a thought occurred to me.
When we bought our B12, I drove it very carefully and slowly for the first few hundred km then gradually increased speed and acceleration.
Our local town, Este is about 12 km away and having started to drive briskly, I found that the engine misfired and died about halfway then having pulled over, it eventually restarted.
Eventually, having checked all sorts of other things I looked in the float chamber of the carb after one unplanned stop to find it was empty.
The mechanical fuel pump was new ( but not FISPA) as sold by one or two Aurelia spares specialists in Italy but in the end I replaced this with a rebuilt old OE FIISPA one and everything was then fine. The new pump was obviously not giving the amount of fuel needed by the carb when driving briskly, presumably because it wasn't getting the correct length push on its foot' operated by  rod driven off the camshaft.
I have lots of fuel pump operating roda and they are all the same length give or take 0.25mm so I have put the pump on my shelf to look at more closely when I have a minute.
Chris

[brian]

I have an electric fuel pump.
I have discussed problem with my friendly autoelectrician and he feels it unlikely to be an alectrical problem as it restarts so quickly after spluttering to a halt.

[brian]

Do not need to remove tank!
I though the filter on the tank bottom plug seemed odd but put it aside. The very clean inside of the tank worried me as to this being the source of my problem and so I thought I would blow air in the tank outlet and see if anything happened. Air came out of the plug hole and on closer look there is a pipe from there to the tank outlet and it fits in the hole at the top of the filter. There was not a speck of dust in the filter. Ergo the problem is not there so no need to take tank out. Still do not know why I failed but hey, so what.
I blew air into pipe from tank to engine and got a smell of petrol at the flexible pipe under floor under rear seat and there was a loose connection and on dismantling it the copper pipe had been flatten so the cross-sectional area was about 1/2 of what it should be. I guess the loose joint and reduced flow and any air sucked in led to my problem.
Does this sound feasible or am I clutching at straws?
I think I will put 2-3galls in the tank and go on a run and see if the problem of spluttering and stopping persists.With my phone of course.
Brian

[simonandjuliet]

Hopefully you've found the issue - don't forget to put the 3 bolts back !