Guys, I hate to do it but I'm running into problems with my SA Nikki that some of you may be able to help me with. First, the information. This is a 79 SA with emissions removed, 4 Speed manual, base model. The emissions hasn't been properly removed on the carb, just some things plugged here and there which could be part if not the issue.

The issue I am having is the secondary barrells are filling with fuel after the car is shut off and sits for about 10 or more minutes. It's just a slow fill and they only go to a certain point and stop. I've purchased another SA Nikki that has sat for a while, I cleaned it up and got it running on the car. I never had any issues with them filling unless I played with the secondaries while the car was off(I was getting no secondaries under load so I was trying to free them up). But tonight as I was changing the oil I noticed a fuel smell. I took the air box off and sure enough, the secondaries are filled. I never played with the secondaries today with the car shut off.

My ultimate question is, is this carb related or do I have a fuel pressure issue perhaps? The fuel system is stock as far as I know. I initially thought this could be the float sticking but I put new floats and needles and what not on my previous Nikki that was doing this. It stopped for a little while and then started doing it again. Eventually I am sending one of these carbs to Sterling to have him rebuild it right, I'm just trying to do something to hold me over until I can do so. Doing this, the car is wasting so much fuel and eventually floods really bad on me where I can't start it. I need to try and save some fuel and I can't be stranded somewhere trying to pull the plugs to deflood it. Any help is very much appreciated. Sorry for the novel, but at least I remembered paragraphs somewhat LOL

 

I would suggest that your needles aren't holding up. After it sits, the remaining pressure from the pump is pushing against the seats/float, if they are leaky, then you would get this symptom. Yes, you just rebuilt it, but is there a "chance" there is debris in there?

I had a similar problem with mine after I rebuilt it - took it apart 2 times to find some small piece of clear plastic blocking the seat. I hate taking that carb on and off...

 

my carb on my turbo is doing this as well. only way i have gotten around it so far is to toggle the pump adnd let the car run dry on fuel before killing it!

 

I don't believe there is any debris in the needles but it is possible. Just to re-iterate, this is seemingly happening on this other carb I got as well, which could be because it sat for awhile. I've actually got the time down to about 30 minutes for changing carbs LOL. I may have to take the previous Nikki apart and re clean the needles and adjust the floats because I know they were set too high

 

see my car will do this i dont know when it happens but it happens somewhere between 5 minutes and 20 after its been shut down. but if i cycle my fuel system on with switch while the car is off it wont leakdown into secondaries.

 

Well I have no fuel cutoff switch. Anybody think tapping the top of the carb with a rubber mallet might help? I can fire it right back up until about 10 minutes after it sits. After that it's hard to start. After a few hours though it will fire up without too much trouble with the choke.

 

Can you double check that you have stock fuel pump?
Also, do you have the return restrictor (mine has one but is 82 and I think yours is similar) in the return fuel line and is it possibly plugged?

Scott

See far right on picture

 

sticky needle and seat, or a sunk float

 

I can check on the pump. It does still have the return restrictor. I'll have to take the top off of the Nikki I rebuilt and clean the needles and seats and re-set the floats. I may have to find my rubber mallet and give that a try too

 

If I remember correctly (it was 2 years ago), I had a similar problem (after I cleaned my carb and found debris after the rebuild) and found that I had a restriction on the return line - i ended up drilling out the nozzle on the charcoal canister (not the restrictor) and life became good - tested it by blowing into the hose (return fuel line) and it just was a lot of backpressure.

Scott

 

I don't have a charcoal canister on the SA but I will check the return line out, maybe it is clogged. I need to seafoam this beast

 

UPDATE!! It's fixed!! I think it turned out to be the return restrictor was clogged a little bit. Didn't seem like a whole lot of air was going thru it when I was blowing thru it. Sprayed some carb cleaner thru and kept blowing. Eventually it seems to flow more air. I took the top of the carb off and sprayed the needle seats and everything down with carb cleaner anyway and I cleaned out my float bowls. Everything is running great now. I did this yesterday and she's fired up super easy everytime ever since. So key note to anyone having a secondary flooding issue, check out the restrictor, it may be clogged.