Remounting an OS .40 needle valve assembly

| the needle valve assembly is where one of the motor mounts will need to | be. Since this assembly is itself mounted to a bracket which is bolted | to the back plate, it occurs to me that it will be possible for me to | unbolt this bracket from the back plate, and then remount the needle | valve assembly in some other fashion.

That's exactly what we do. I'm assuming that your engine has a remote needle valve, where the fuel line goes into the valve, then there's some more fuel line, and then it goes into the carburator.

You can even replace the fuel line between the carb and the valve as long as you don't make it too long, though any time you change it, you'll probably need to retune the engine.

We do it that way on boats all the time.

I had this problem myself a couple of times, it's the angle support area of the motor mount that gets in the way, I have taken a Dremel with a round sanding drum and sanded the area away for the needle valve to pass by. If you do not have to sand to the actual rail that the engine sits on, you will be fine.

Many years ago, I made a remote needle valve assembly for a Merco 29 when I was unable to replace a broken needle valve. I used a spare OS needle assembly fastened to an aluminium bracket which was in turn fastened to the firewall. Worked for years and I still have it "just in case".

Malcolm

Thanks for the responses, folks.

I removed the bracket from the back plate, and mounted the first engine-mount where the bracket was. By the way, I developed a little proceedure for this, so I will explain how I did this. I wanted the bracket to be snug up against the engine, so my first thought was to hold the mount snug, and then drill. Then, I realized that the chuck would be in the way. So, before I put the bit in the drill, I held the mount snug, and then inserted the bit into the hole where the bolt would go. Then, I turned the bit by hand, thereby creating an artificial punch mark in the soft aluminum mount, to line up the bit for drilling. Then, I drilled the hole, and fastened the first bolt. After this, I removed the bit from the chuck, and followed the same proceedure for the second bolt. And now, of course, I will want to mount the second engine-mount so that both mounts will fit flat up against the firewall, with the engine pointed neither to the left, nor to the right.

Mike Mandaville Austin The United States of Texas