What Andy said^^^^^^^
Which he got from me, though he added the clear tube idea as he doesn't enjoy the taste of petrol! Come to think of it, neither do I, but usually risk it rather than go looking for clear tube!
For some reason, Dolomites in particular seem to suffer from a fuel pump that can run fine if there's some fuel present in the line, but not if it's completely empty.
I also met one recently (on a Sprint) where this "suck through" idea worked fine until left overnight. If you sucked the fuel through initially, the car would run well past the amount of fuel in the float chambers, long enough to get up to operating temp then go round the block a handful of times. If switched off, it would restart immediately. if left off for an hour it would restart immediately. But leave it overnight and it would not start in the morning, or, if it DID start, would only run out what was left in the float chambers and then stop iretrievably, unless sucked through manally again.
This turned out, after a lot of head scratching, to be down to what I think is the anti-runback valve in the fuel pump having come adrift (it's only a push fit) and turned on it's side inside the pump body. This was invisible till I took the pump apart (and not immediately obvious when I did) and didn't affect the pump working as a pump, I took it off and tested it by working the arm while dipping a pipe off the inlet into a container of petrol and it produced a fine quantity of fuel.
I had a spare new pump of the same (QH) make, and if it had been the same arm type, i'd probably never have known why the fault occurred, just fitted the new pump and shrugged it off.
But, as it turned out, the original pump was a "short arm" type and the new pump was a long arm type, requiring a spacer I didn't have in stock. So, being short on time, I took both pumps apart in a bid to swap the arms over. This also turned out to be impossible as the arm pivot was peined into the lower case. I ended up using the old lower case and arm with the new upper case, with non return valve fitted, diaphragm and post, filter and lid. It was only when I turned the old upper case upside down that the loose NRV fell out, alerting me to what the REAL problem was!
I have at least 2 other Triumphs around here (both 1500s) that will not self prime and need a good suck through to get them started after a layup of more than a few weeks. I'm beginning to wonder if this problem is more widespread than just a 1 off!
Steve
_________________ '73 2 door Toledo with Vauxhall Carlton 2.0 8v engine (The Carledo)
'78 Sprint Auto with Vauxhall Omega 2.2 16v engine (The Dolomega)
'72 Triumph 1500FWD in Slate Grey, Now with RWD and Carledo powertrain!
Maverick Triumph, Servicing, Repairs, Electrical, Recomissioning, MOT prep, Trackerjack brake fitting service.
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