Beta woes

[bromleybysea]

My Beta 28 stopped suddenly under way yesterday without warning- no faltering or “hunting” you might expect due to fuel problems or an air leak. Now the engine spins up fine but seems as if there is no compression- absolutely no attempt to fire up. Certainly hasn’t run out of fuel as I filled the tank before departure. Any thoughts as to the problem and tips for diagnosis much appreciated!

 

[neilf39]

How have you determined fuel is getting to the injectors? Could be a lump of crud has come loose in the tank and blocking the feed pipe before the filters. If you open the bleed screw on the fine filter when turning the engine over does fuel come out? If not there is a blockage before it or the lift pump may possibly have failed. If you loosen the pipe joint to an injector does fuel come out when turning the engine over? Other thing to check is the stop solenoid. Has a fault left it closed? Unlikely you have lost compression on all cylinders. Sounds like no fuel getting through.

 

[PetiteFleur]

As mentioned check you have fuel getting to the engine. This happened to me a few years ago, turned out to be a piece of crud blocking the on/off tap near the tank.

 

[chrishscorp]

I had the stop solenoid stick once which caused momentary panic at the prospect of my lovely reliable Beta not purring into life.

 

[jwilson]

When you say "no compression" do you mean it? Does it spin up faster than usual when you turn the starter?

 

[Oily Rag]

Worth checking that you haven't got a blocked air filter. Good luck.

 

[earlybird]

Very surprising if you've lost compression on all 3 cylinders. A spanner on the crankshaft pulley nut will soon demonstrate.
My vote would be a fuel problem.

 

[jwfrary]

My best would be fuel solenoid, so nothing's coming out of the injector.

As post 7 a spanner on the crank pulley will soon tell you if you have 0 compression. If so then remove the rocker cover and inspect the valve train

 

[Graham376]

Some years ago we had a problem with a club launch with Beta engine but not sure what HP. Turned out the stop solenoid had failed, needs energising to run so no power or failed unit stopped the engine. There's a rod coming out of it which we cut off as a temporary fix and used the manual stop on the pump.