In the workshop manual, i can't find any mention of the charcoal cannister, how it works or what it is supposed to do. I don't much like the idea of all that junk going through the carby. I presume it doesn't get near the jets. Can I just remove it?

Charcoal canisters are generally only fitted to EFI vehicles. They catch fuel vapor from the fuel tank, store it and then when driving conditions are suitable the vapor is purged into the intake. The charcoal stays in the canister and only the vapor is released.

It is illegal to remove as it is an emissions control device.

They are fitted to all cars pretty much. It isnt EFI exclusive. Basically it traps fumes that could escape into the atmosphere from the fuel tank. The charcol stores these fumes and when the running conditions are right they are consumed by the engine. From memory the charcol canister implementation was a part of ADR27A back in July 76. The day that performance died!

Have a read of this. Could be interesting.

http://autospeed.com/cms/title_Emissions-Regulations-Part-One/A_2677/article.html

Thanks for the interesting replies. This is on a carby model TP. There is a flexible tube about 10mm inside diameter running from the charcoal cannister to the carby. The tube had become brittle from age and had some small splits in it, so I replaced it a couple of days ago with neoprene tube. I noticed that there were bits of charcoal inside the old tube. The new tube is clear and it is easy to see that it has now filled up with little chunks of charcoal all the way up to the carby.

From your description, it seems that something is wrong. This may explain my problems with the car (see the thread below entitled "Fuel pump?").

Ok, I've taken the carby off and commenced taking it apart to clean it. So far about 2 teaspoons full of charcoal granules have fallen out and I haven't even got the top off the carby yet. Every time I tilt it, more falls out. No wonder it wasn't running!

I've disassembled the accelerator pump and its diaphragm is OK, so I think a good clean of the whole carby should get me going.

Shouldn't be doing that. Get another from the wreckers, or put some sort of filter in to stop the charcoal moving up the tube.