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Suffolk Punch fuel cap spins. and spins. and spins

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steveb Fri, 20/04/2018

Slightly frustrating, this lovely Punch Mk1a has been in hibernation for the last 18 months - last year was so wet that I never got a chance to use it. 

However trying to open the fuel cap , it was stuck tight. I had to grip it with a large set of pliers in order to free it, which didn't take much effort - or so I thought. The cap released but now it just spins and spins... 

I attach a picture, the cap is clearly not original (nor may the tank be):

 

 

It feels like the metal lip that the cap screws onto is rotating - is that possible, is that manufactured as a separate part and then set into the roof of the tank, or is that tank a one piece and what has to be rotating is some devious part of this cap?

Does anyone have any suggestions short of cracking it off with pliers or drilling a hole in the top and filling the tank through a funnel.

For a mower that has stood still for 18 months, it did still have fuel in the tank, started first pull and cut half of the garden before it ran dry!

Thoughts appreciated

Steve

 

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wristpin Fri, 20/04/2018

Looks like there may be enough room to loop a bit of wire (control cable inner?) around the tank spigot below the cap (wrong cap for that tank) and wind it up tight, Spanish Windlass fashion to hold the spigot while undoing the cap. I think that the threaded spigots were originally crimped into the tanks but hard soldering or brazing should fix it. Then fit the proper metal cap.

steveb Sun, 22/04/2018

Thanks, was a very good idea, but I couldn't get it to work in practice - I broke 2 cables trying -it seems like the cap is fused to the spigot.

Eventually I resorted to taking the tank off turning it upside down to minimise swarf and drilled a 19mm hole up through the cap. This at least let me fill it with a small funnel and plug it with a wine cork :) but at least I finished the garden. 

Once I can source a replacement cap I will cut the cap through with a hacksaw and peel it apart. I don't have any soldering equipment that can do anything that size - would araldite do at a push (the old 24 hour set stuff, not the "rapid") to set the spigot back in place?

Annoying that to buy a cap , people seem to want more than I paid for the entire mower!

-Steve

wristpin Sun, 22/04/2018

Proper Araldite in the blue and white tubes!!

If you can lay hands on an old 1-gallon engine oil can with a metal cap I think that it will fit - you just need to make a breather hole. 

In the days when most mower owners kept their fuel in such a can, we would see occasional stoppages when the fuel can cap had replaced the mower tank cap and the lack of a breather had brought things to a halt.