The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

I went to the local council dump today, its only a 2 mile run. Whilst queuing on the ramp up to the unloading area the car died and would not re-start. Sunday is a busy day at the dump, so a lot of people were held up as a helpful guy infront of me in a Transit pickup connected a nylon strop and towed the Dolly up the ramp.

I had a look under the bonnet and noticed the in line fuel filter I installed infront of the fuel pump was empty. The fuel tank showed 1/3 full and is correct as I put in £30.00 at the beginning of the week, and I have only driven about 20 miles since then.

I undid the fuel pipe from the front carb and started sucking....got a taste of petrol and then re-attached the pipe. The fuel filter now had fuel in it. So I try starting the car whilst my son unloaded the junk into the skip. After a few turn it starts. "Right lets go, before it stops again!", I call to my son and away we go. So I drive back home, no problem, apart from my son complaining about me embarrassing him in that stupid car.

Anyway, I may need a new fuel pump as it seems that at tick-over facing upward on a steep slope it could not pull fuel from the tank to the carbs. Looks like the fuel pump cannot be repaired. Does anyone have any recommendations for a new fuel pump. I see there are many on ebay but are they any good?

Before investing in a new pump....have a look at all your rubber joining sections for a pin hole. What could have happened is that you exposed the pin hole and the fuel pump started sucking in air. which formed an air lock in your pipe. In fact it can also happen in a steel bit too (pin hole that is), especially over the rear axle.

Its a bit gutting to change the pump and have this re-occur.

Jonners

I recently had a pin hole in the metal pipe above the rear axle and it is very hard to spot as petrol does not leak out when the car is standing with the engine not running as the pipe at this point is above the level of petrol in the tank. When the engine is running it will be sucking some air in so again no petrol leak. The pin hole is more than likely on the top of the pipe so you can't see it from under the car.

As Richard and John have said look at the steel pipe over the axle especially the upper most pipe retaining clip which tends to rust the pipe through. Had this problem many moons ago. A check of the entire length as well before condemning the pump though.

And when you have to buy a new pump try to get a nos or something period. Most modern Chinese or Italian ones are not good. An su needs 0,15 to 0,20 bar max. I did see some intimidation ones having 0,6 bar. This causes over fuelling, leaking float valves and rich mixtures. Some do start the traject of adjusting and adjusting and keep adjusting the carbs but the best is always measure the fuel pressure after replacing the fuel pump by an unknown or non original one. If the pressure is too high you can fit a pressure regulator.

Jeroen

Karlos, I think Jeroen's advice is not to be intimidated by an over-pressurised imitiation pump.

Heheh, they say intimidation is the greatest form of flatulence don't they?
Or is that just my type ahead getting ahead of itself?

Thanks for the pointers everyone.
I did have a perished pipe at the rear carb which I replaced last week. The rest looked OK apart from the pipe coming out of the tank so I replaced that one too. I will check over the metal pipe too as I totally ignored it.
I also did search the forum regarding fuel pumps and read one of Jeroen's posts from 2009 which warned then about the delivery pressure of electric and other mech fuel pumps.

If you do decide to go electric Moss Europe do a decent one. I've had one on my P6 for ages with no issues.

Some have had trouble with the right shape arm lately.

Jonners

Checked out the metal fuel pipe, it's quite nasty looking. Question now is kunifer or copper? Kunifer is nearly 2x the price of copper 5/16 pipe from what I can find. Does anyone know of a supplier who charges less than £7 per meter? I only need 2.5 meters.

I used copper as it was readily available and much easier to bend but it was still quite a job with both the prop and exhaust in place on my 1500.

Ive just run 2 lengths of copper on my sprint. Easy to bend and easy to kink. Get a hand held pipe bender to go to 90 deg bends or it will kink. I would have preferred cunifer but my local place didnt have it in stock so in my need to get it now I got the copper. If your near me (warks) I'll lend you my pipe bender

Tony

Thanks for the offer Tony, I do have a small pipe bender for brake pipes, etc. I'll go with copper too, I replaced all the brake pipes 3 years ago with copper and have had no issues with it.

Karlos wrote: I'll go with copper too, I replaced all the brake pipes 3 years ago with copper and have had no issues with it.

Jeroen, stop being cryptic!

Tony

8mm microbore central heating pipe from the builders merchants is even cheaper than copper fuel pipe from the factors.

It's been happily containing up to 4 bar (almost 60psi) on the Carledo for 5 years now. Nice and easy to bend too!

Steve