My Hornet cranks up fine if I crank it daily. It it sets for a week or two then it is very hard to crank and I need a FULL battery to crank it enough to get fuel back up in the line. Generally if I still see fuel in the clear fuel filter it seems to crank OK but if the filter is dry it takes a while to fire off.
It seems that the fuel flows back out of the fuel line and it takes a lot of cranking to push the fuel back up to the carb. Does that indicate that the fuel pump may need rebuilding/replacing or would it be something on the carburetor. I am thinking of putting a carb kit in since I do know the carb has not been worked on for over 20 years. I think some have gone to an electric fuel pump but I like keeping it original if possible. Thanks for our advice. Gary
My guess would be to put a kit in the carb-if it has leaky gaskets it can hasten evaporation or drain out. My '54 Wasp has a rebuilt carb (and engine) and it only needs 2 pumps and starts after only a few spins on the starter, in fact I can easily flood it if I pump the heck out of it while cranking!
Thanks Bruce. I guess I will now decide if I want to do it now. I have a twin H Setup on the way so maybe I will just rebuild them proactively and not worry about these carbs too much. Gary
You have to remember today's gas will dry out in the carb and fuel pump in 6 days and that causes the hard starts. All new cars today have sealed fuel systems, but you can not seal a Hudson fuel system as you will ruin the gas tank. The only thing to help Hudson is install an electric fuel pump and turn it on before you try to start your engine, and let it run at least 3 minutes. No short cuts here. Walt.
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