Been there done that with LOTS of meths fired locos.
The air vent from the sump to the fuel tank is the key to these "Chicken Feeder" systems. Most early Aster had a short vent pipe sticking down to the sump. You are meant to fit a section of plastic pipe to this to extend it downwards the right amount. It sounds from your description that you are getting airlocks with fuel in the air vent system, so the thing is failing to feed after a little while.
The cure is probably to do ALL of the following :-
1. Extend the vent pipe downwards using large diameter (bore) pipe. Needs to be 3/16 - 1/4 inch diameter to avoid surface tension funnies affecting the venting..
2. Cut the lower end of the plastic pipe off at 30 -45 degrees. This helps it to gulp air when it needs to without trying to suck up fuel from the sump as well - that's what causes the airlocking.
3 When you've got it feeding, then you may want to fiddle with wick packing to get the right heating level. I've never owned an Aster Alisan Shay - (someone beat me to the one I was trying to buy!), but I believe the burner may move with respect to the boiler on this loco so you MAY need longer wicks than most.
Good luck with it!
Jim Gregg.
At 04:14 PM 2/4/03 -0800, you wrote:
I just got my new Alisan shay. Fuel was running out of the overflow hole. I made sure the fuel cap was on correctly and it still leaked. I added about 1/4" of rubber tubing to the tube that regulates fuel level, which stopped the leak.The wicks would not hold a flame. The wicks arrived 15mm long so I trimmed them to 5mm. The specs call for 5mm in one place and 3mm in another section of the instructions. Flame was better and I raised .5-1 Bar pressure three times and opened the blower a bit, removed the fan and the flame went out within a minute. No fuel was the problem. This is on level ground. Wicks are packed fairly densly (I can rotate the wick bundle, but it does not pull out easily and the wick head cannot be mashed down). Wondering whether my 1/4" extra tubing on the overflow vent pipe for fuel is somehow restricting fuel when pressure is raised? The fuel clear line shows no fuel when the fire goes out. The tank has fuel. I tip the loco and fuel runs into the line and the air bubble burps out so fuel flows enough to raise pressure again. Any help would be appreciated. I have only fixed and fired a friend's Reno (which had some significant fuel leaks for awhile also) and otherwise run a butane fired Steamlines shay. Gary - Running trains over Terror Trestle in Eugene, Oregon http://www.angelfire.com/or/trainguy http://community.webshots.com/user/raltzenthor
