Hi All,
Just thought I would share this with you, the other day I started my 3500s and noticed a distinct smell of petrol, thought it was just that I had the choke out, so in went the choke and I drove home. The smell got steadily worse, so with the engine running when I got home I popped the bonnet. As soon as I did I could see the problem, fuel was squirting out of the pump from the joint that holds the diaphragm, luckily the squirt was in the direction of the radiator and not the hot exhaust manifold although I did now have an under bonnet area that was saturated with petrol fumes, so I quickly ran round to turn off the car and retired to a safe distance – back to work! I think I might invest in a fire extinguisher.
After waiting for the engine bay to cool sufficiently (A whole day seemed sufficient!) I returned to remove the fuel pump, looked fairly easy so I will run through it in stages:
1. First things first round the back to disconnect the battery
2. Ok back to the front and remove the fuel line into the pump – Mistake 1, the fuel line is metal and impossible to remove from the pump unless the pump itself has been unbolted from the block, so after what felt like ages of fuel pouring onto my drive I managed to re-attach the fuel line. Mistake 2 – Should have drained some fuel from the tank, it is mounted quite high in the boot on a P6 which gives enough pressure to allow petrol to flow freely from the supply pipe!
3. Remove the two bolts that hold the pump to the block
4. To remove the fuel line pull the fuel pump to the left and up (the pipe to the carbs is flexible so this is quite easy).
5. Mistake 3 – have your stopper for the fuel line close to hand and do not leave it on the kitchen table!
6. Run in and get your stopper from the kitchen – My stopper was fashioned from a 10mm dowel with a chamfer at one end and a child’s balloon (I used a pencil sharpener to chamfer the dowel but you could use a knife, whatever you use do not make a sharp point it will puncture the balloon)
7. Place the balloon over the fuel line and force the dowel into the pipe trapping the balloon, the dowel will deform to fit the hole and the balloon will create a fuel tight seal
8. You can now safely remove the fuel line to the carbs, and extract the fuel pump
9. Mistake 4 - Ensure the pump is completely empty of fuel and oil before you take it into the house to examine it - The wife was very happy about this one!
10. Tighten up the six screws that hold the pump together to cure the leak; at this point you may notice that the screws closest to the leak actually have stripped threads!
11. Go to your local DIY shop and purchase some 6mm machine screws with nuts
12. Re-tighten the fuel pump, this is where you may notice that to cure the leak in the past the non-stripped threads have been over-tightened to compensate for the stripped threads and give a wonderful arched effect between the screws.
13. Split the pump
14. Remove the diaphragm by compressing the spring and unhooking it from the lever
15. On a flat surface run the sealing edges in a circular motion on a piece of Wet and Dry until you can see a bright line all the way round. You should now have a flat surface.
16. Re-assemble the pump
17. Swear a lot when you cannot re-attach the diaphragm to the lever even with no return spring in place
18. Hold the fuel pump the right way up and easily re-attach the diaphragm
19. Kick yourself for not thinking of it earlier
20. Re-assemble the pump
21. Realise that it is dark outside and you will never be able to re-fit the pump tonight
22. Walk to work in the morning (in the rain)
23. Sit down and write about it
My final mistake of course was not taking any pictures! But I wanted to finish it ASAP, will let you know how the re-fit goes tomorrow.
Cheers
Al
Just thought I would share this with you, the other day I started my 3500s and noticed a distinct smell of petrol, thought it was just that I had the choke out, so in went the choke and I drove home. The smell got steadily worse, so with the engine running when I got home I popped the bonnet. As soon as I did I could see the problem, fuel was squirting out of the pump from the joint that holds the diaphragm, luckily the squirt was in the direction of the radiator and not the hot exhaust manifold although I did now have an under bonnet area that was saturated with petrol fumes, so I quickly ran round to turn off the car and retired to a safe distance – back to work! I think I might invest in a fire extinguisher.
After waiting for the engine bay to cool sufficiently (A whole day seemed sufficient!) I returned to remove the fuel pump, looked fairly easy so I will run through it in stages:
1. First things first round the back to disconnect the battery
2. Ok back to the front and remove the fuel line into the pump – Mistake 1, the fuel line is metal and impossible to remove from the pump unless the pump itself has been unbolted from the block, so after what felt like ages of fuel pouring onto my drive I managed to re-attach the fuel line. Mistake 2 – Should have drained some fuel from the tank, it is mounted quite high in the boot on a P6 which gives enough pressure to allow petrol to flow freely from the supply pipe!
3. Remove the two bolts that hold the pump to the block
4. To remove the fuel line pull the fuel pump to the left and up (the pipe to the carbs is flexible so this is quite easy).
5. Mistake 3 – have your stopper for the fuel line close to hand and do not leave it on the kitchen table!
6. Run in and get your stopper from the kitchen – My stopper was fashioned from a 10mm dowel with a chamfer at one end and a child’s balloon (I used a pencil sharpener to chamfer the dowel but you could use a knife, whatever you use do not make a sharp point it will puncture the balloon)
7. Place the balloon over the fuel line and force the dowel into the pipe trapping the balloon, the dowel will deform to fit the hole and the balloon will create a fuel tight seal
8. You can now safely remove the fuel line to the carbs, and extract the fuel pump
9. Mistake 4 - Ensure the pump is completely empty of fuel and oil before you take it into the house to examine it - The wife was very happy about this one!
10. Tighten up the six screws that hold the pump together to cure the leak; at this point you may notice that the screws closest to the leak actually have stripped threads!
11. Go to your local DIY shop and purchase some 6mm machine screws with nuts
12. Re-tighten the fuel pump, this is where you may notice that to cure the leak in the past the non-stripped threads have been over-tightened to compensate for the stripped threads and give a wonderful arched effect between the screws.
13. Split the pump
14. Remove the diaphragm by compressing the spring and unhooking it from the lever
15. On a flat surface run the sealing edges in a circular motion on a piece of Wet and Dry until you can see a bright line all the way round. You should now have a flat surface.
16. Re-assemble the pump
17. Swear a lot when you cannot re-attach the diaphragm to the lever even with no return spring in place
18. Hold the fuel pump the right way up and easily re-attach the diaphragm
19. Kick yourself for not thinking of it earlier
20. Re-assemble the pump
21. Realise that it is dark outside and you will never be able to re-fit the pump tonight
22. Walk to work in the morning (in the rain)
23. Sit down and write about it
My final mistake of course was not taking any pictures! But I wanted to finish it ASAP, will let you know how the re-fit goes tomorrow.
Cheers
Al