While awaiting a working compressor, I turned my attention to the fuel tank, which I had been avoiding for some time. As you can see from Picture 1, I have an "adult balloon" covering the fuel filller inlet. And I have a childs balloon covering one of the smaller exits on the bottom of the tank. The other is attached to a foot pump. The condom gives instant recognition that pressure is being applied. Investigation with soapy water didn't really show anything though the condom deflated quite quickly, so something was leaking. I shoved the whole contraption in the bath and discovered to my amusement that the condom had a hole in it!
Next step was to remove the condom (which I had hoped would eliminate a source of leaks) and replace it with the filler neck and filler cap (as per the plans). I also purchased some polythene tubing so that I could make a manometer, as I had no idea how much pressure I was applying. The plans indicate that a head of 28 inches of water produces one psi, the target pressure. I found that it takes some 20 cycles of the foot pump to raise the pressure by 1 psi, so no wonder I had difficulty finding leaks previously.
Further investigation with higher pressure and soapy water revealed numerous leaks coming from the sight glass.
Keith returned with a replacement regulator and pressure sensor for the compressor. This still doesn't work correctly, but I can use the compressor, albeit with it running all the time and venting excess pressure at regular intervals. Not good.
