Fuel Starvation?

[SHyslop]

I thought it was maybe worth adding a recent experience to this topic. A newish addition to the fleet, a 1934 car, was starting and running ok in the garage but when going uphill (and not a biggish hill) the carburettor emptied of petrol and it came to a stop. Examination and replacement of all the usual underbonnet items made no difference but the culprit was eventually traced to dirt in the tank. Although it had been drained and refilled on arrival, a piece of debris in the tank big enough to block the very small pick up hole must have been sucked to cover the entry and with the reserve control being in the "boot", a quick push or pull of the control hadn't jumped to mind. Further draining, filtering and filling has taken place with several potential culprits removed.

I did remember that the later cars have a mesh filter soldered round the pick up pipes and a rake in a box of bits produced a tiny mesh cone I had made about 30 years ago for an Austin 7, probably for an oil filler. It was possible, but only just, to fit it round the pipes and then into the hole on the top of the tank. This is considerably smaller than on a P2 but hills tackled so far have been both ascended and descended.