Frozen or Broken?

[kinelbor]

I got the cub fired up today, was gonna attempt to push some of our snow around. (Yes we did get LOTS of it last 2 days, 2 feet in fields and 3 foot drifts.) I tried to use it but had no power, the throttle was sticking, hence no governer. I barely got back inside becuase it was surging, full RPM to Idle, Full, Idle.... What happened?

[Donny M]

Nik,

Check all the govenor linkage.

[kinelbor]

Not sure what happened, its fine now

[Rudi]

Nik:

It is probably called ICE.. or just Cold temps.... we used to refer to em as gremlins... never can pin em down, they appear and just as quickly disappear, usually shortly after your latest meltdown..

[beaconlight]

Put some gas line antifreez in it. Sounds like ice.

Bill

[Clark Thompson]

what probabley happened is that you didnt let the engine warm up long engough in friged weather. If you dont let the engine warm up the cold air going through the carb freezes / frost on the inside if the intake just above the carb. Sometimes in below zero weather i have to cover the whole front of the cub with canvas to keep the intake from frosting up. now days i dont even think of going out to when its that cold

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

Clark, my solution is the same as yours (stay inside when it's that cold).

[beaconlight]

Any body ever flown in a light plane is familiar with carburator heat. It's distressing at the least to have an iced up carb while in the air.

Bill

[George Willer]

Any body ever flown in a light plane is familiar with carburator heat. It's distressing at the least to have an iced up carb while in the air.

Bill

Yes indeed!!! I remember well the sight of the two trees I intended to fly between to leave the wings to give my son and I a better chance of survival (there was no clear area to land). Imagine the relief when the ice finally cleared!!! This was in early August, 1970... when one would hardly expect carburetor ice. We were on our way home from the first EAA fly-in at Oshkosh.

[beaconlight]

I learned about it on a J3 . I had to quit. Kids came along and it was sell the kids or stop flying.

bill

[Patbretagne]

Hope you get the bugs out!
In my early motoring days, an old Landrover carb would ice up till no air would go through it and would stifle itself with over fuel.
I seem to remember that it was doing it mainly due to the ignition being too far advanced. I did cure it, sure it was the ign? Worrying in a LR killer in the air!
Fortunately the two wings disn't have to come off in the end George!
Happy new year
Pat

[Carm]

Yes, Carb ice can not be any fun...especially in the air. Hmmmm a carb heat mod for the Cubs

[Patbretagne]

Yopu may remember Mid Finistere etc and the renault, The Choke system is strange it's a solex carb with a separate ventri next to the main where the choke gas and air goes through.
When I finally got it going a couple of weeks ago,(but that as someone said, is another story!) the outside of this tube very quickly iced up , the engine gradually started to choke itself, put warmish fingers on the tube it cleared itself but quickly iced again.

Happy new Year Pat and Noëlle

[beaconlight]

As read this I remembered that there were shields around the maniold of some old L Head engines. I wonder if they were to provide Carb Heat. You don't want too much of it or you end up with vapor lock. I haven't seen any of that in years.

Bill

[George Willer]

As read this I remembered that there were shields around the maniold of some old L Head engines. I wonder if they were to provide Carb Heat. You don't want too much of it or you end up with vapor lock. I haven't seen any of that in years.

Bill

John N. can answer this one better, but there were two different purposes for the muffs... carburetor heat on aircraft, and cabin heat on early autos. Vapor lock wasn't really a problem in applications using gravity feed. In order to have vapor lock, you must first have vacuum created by a fuel pump... causing a lower pressure in the line than atmospheric in the tank. Otherwise the head pressure in the tank will force the vapor on through the needle valve.

Warming the intake air reduces the power because the air is less dense. That's how the carb heat is checked to make sure it is working... by the reduction in RPM when it is applied at pre-flight run-up.