Thursday, November 29, 2012

Ewarts fuel tap cork repair

I sent these pictures off to Tony a few days back when he had a question about a leaky petcock.  I'd run into the same problem with the MSS fuel taps a few winters ago.  

I remember Floyd G. telling me that he would use a wine bottle cork to repair his petcocks and clutch pack inserts.  Having at it,  I pulled the small screw on the side of the body and withdrew the cork/piston valve assembly. Floyd had the earlier 40's style fuel taps (push/push)  with one side having a hexagon.  this type uses a flat section of cork. Tony and I have the round Ewarts style.

Ed G. had the round type corks for repairing leaky Ewarts taps. It would be interesting to find how to cleanly cut a cylinder out of cork material. I've replaced a several corks in the past few years, mostly from draining the tank dry for winter storage.

Ed's suggestion was to use a punch and knock the brass riveted end back into the pull knob. From that point its a matter of adding the new cork section and tapping the brass back into the knob.  There seems to be enough material to do this a few times.  If your handy with a small lathe you could make a new piston section that threads onto the knob. 

On a side note, Tony found that you can boil the cork piston assembly to get back some life. I've also removed the valves and stored them in a small container of gas when the tank is drained.  







1 comment:

Rik said...

I just made one for a Seagull outboard. 9/64ths hole, 3/8ths long and 3/8ths diameter. Made from a bit of wine cork. I cut the cork to 3/8ths with a knife and drilled the hole freehand. It fitted tightly on the sanding drum attachment on a dremel, which also uses 3/8th washers. Held the dremel in the vice and used a strip of 80 grit sandpaper 'cos that's what I had handy. Took about 10 minutes to remove and replace the repaired tap, not counting figuring out the dremel bit.

Hope that helps,

Rik