Triumph Repair: * 79 Spit Carb Problems *, car novice, charcoal canister

Question
Howard:
    Question #3 from this British car novice. I asked a while back about plugging the line from the valve cover to the carb. I followed your direction and reattached the hose....but then attached it to the wrong port on the carb. The second port behind the air breather facing the front of the car was the right one...I hooked it to the first one closest to the breather (Stromberg carb). Blew blue smoke everywhere and oil poured from the dipstick.
    I Placed the hose on the proper one farthest from the air breather and started the car. The car would not run smooth or idle. After removing the air breather, gas poured from the air intake. It does have a manual choke and I worked the choke while trying to start the car. There is a manual choke lever under the dash and a small "button" to continuosly pump while starting under the dash. To be honest, I'm not sure what the button is for...maybe prime the carb? The car turns over now but doesn't fire. Any suggestions?

Answer
Hi Don,
There is only one place to put the hose for the breather pipe and it is usually pointed up at an angle and closer to the engine than the filter. It should have a restriction (usually plastic)3/16 in.hole on the carb pipe and the large breather hose slides over that. The large breather hose is short and goes directly to a "Y" connector. One other part of the "Y" goes to a short rubber hose on the valve cover and the last part of the "Y" goes to the center connection on the Primary charcoal canister where it is restricted by a 3/32 in hole.
These restrictions are very important as they are air leaks. There are only two other pipes on the carb and one is a fuel line and the other is a float vent pipe which must be open to the air or to the charcoal canister as it should.
Triumph never had a button under the dash to prim the engine and the ones that did have a manual choke had a pull cable.
Check to see that the float vent is open and the fuel line is on the correct pipe. You may have to pull and clean the plugs now if you had the fuel line on the wrong connection and check to see if all of the restriction holes are in place.
For tests you can just open the valve cover hose to air and block off the angled pipe on the carb and make sure you have the float vent open and the fuel line on the fuel line pipe.
Let me know,
Howard
Howard