General Tech Sealing Fuel Line at the Pump: TR4

TR4:

The brass fitting I have at the pump outlet (to the carbs) doesn't have a long enough reach to compress the ferrule inside the fuel pump. I'm referring to the outlet part of the pump with 1/4" line. Have folks talked about that around here before? The fitting is 1/2-20, but every single fitting I find to replace mine is the same length. Is there such a thing as a longer ferrule? What's the fix?

Yes, several times. The original ferrule was a different shape, only tapered on one end, which effectively made it slightly longer. Personally, I took to the lathe and made a longer nut, one of my first projects on it. Very successful, my only regret is that I should have used steel and maybe plated it afterwards rather than using brass.

Here is another solution:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2H2NJt34OffODA0ZmI4YTItNDhiZC00YmMzLTllOTUtZWVjN2U5MTUzZjA3

Others have reported success by wrapping many turns of teflon plumbing tape or even valve stem packing around the line between nut and ferrule. Not a fix I endorse, but beats having fuel leak all over.

Fantastic. I was hoping for a fix like that.

a) And, right, that old ferrule does look longer. I'll put two together. I don't suppose hose or hydraulics shops still carry a part like that. I must say, though--putting two together makes the arrangement only about 1/32" longer. How do we know that's enough? I'm inclined to leave a little more on one of the shaved ferrules.

b) I was also wondering about shaving the "bolt head" of my tube nut down so it would go deeper into the pump housing, but that looks impossible without a special tool of some sort. I suppose that's why you used a lathe and made one.

c) Just as importantly, I was fairly certain you'd have an answer, Randall. Incredible as always. Using our "advanced" search on the Forum how could I find your prior posts on that topic? Searching "compression" would have been tough. Same for "fuel line." I'm just curious how best to dredge up all the knowledge accumulated around here.

a) Might be available, I didn't look all that hard. Just showed an original to a couple of shops, who all said they'd never seen anything like that. My assumption was that if they were available, Moss or TRF would have them, instead of selling us the wrong thing. I don't know for certain that 1/32" is always "enough"; but it seemed to work for Scott.

b) Might work, but I think you'd need to cut off the last thread, too. Some careful (and tedious) work with a 3-corner file should do. You could use a 1/4" bolt as a holding fixture. But I'm still learning (the hard way) how to use the lathe, and it was a fun project. (for me)

c) I have no idea. But Google indexes this site, so I use it instead of the forum search engine. Just add "site:britishcarforum.com" to the search phrase. I just tried "fuel pump compression sleeve site:britishcarforum.com" (without the quotes) and about the third result was Geo Hahn copying my reply from the Triumph mail list over 10 years ago!

I took a hack saw then a file to reduce the number of outboard threads on the pump itself.
That allowed the compression nut to put a little more pressure on the ferrule without bottoming out.

I just finished with ferrule filing. Absolutely perfect. Tight, no leaks. Awesome advice around here as always.

Merry Christmas, All. I hope all is well with you and yours.

On by Christmas day ride this morning I learned that my last post (above) was too good to be true. No big deal, but I've got a slight leak again because the "double ferrule" I made by filing down two of them isn't working "perfectly."

Instead of filing the two ferrules down to the midpoint, could I leave more on this time? I realize I won't have a perfectly flat midpoint joint, but I don't think that should matter.

Also, is there a way to remove the ones now pinched on the line? I'd like to avoid making and bending a whole new line to the carbs. thx

I don't see any reason leaving the two halves a bit thicker would be a problem.

I would cut a slot in the sleeve with a Dremel & cutoff blade, being careful not to nick the line; then stick a screwdriver into the slot and twist it to break the sleeve. But the line will probably be deformed where the sleeve was before, so it may not seal anyway.

It is a bit of a bodge - but I wonder if a wrap of Teflon tape around the ferrule you have on there would take care of that last bit of leak. Certainly easier that dealing with removal and possibly a deformed line and I don't think it would get you into much trouble if it is not a success.

I recently had to fabricate a new inlet tube to pump line (the other line and shorter) because the brass nut flats had rounded off after all of these years. Perhaps this side of the pump is different however I doubt it. Oriellys was able to fix me up with a Ferrell and a long nut and everything sealed up just fine. The nut was steel rather than brass. Local hardware only had short nuts and said go to Auto parts store for the longer nut. Maybe try your friendly auto parts store.

The pump is the same on both sides, but the nut and line are different. The outlet line is smaller, the nut adapts the smaller line to the larger pump fitting.

JerryVV said:

I recently had to fabricate a new inlet tube to pump line (the other line and shorter) because the brass nut flats had rounded off after all of these years. Perhaps this side of the pump is different however I doubt it. Oriellys was able to fix me up with a Ferrell and a long nut and everything sealed up just fine. The nut was steel rather than brass. Local hardware only had short nuts and said go to Auto parts store for the longer nut. Maybe try your friendly auto parts store.

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I searched up down and everywhere for a longer nut; do you have a pic of what you found? Orielly had nothing where I'm located--tried 3 different local outlets.

KVH said:

I searched up down and everywhere for a longer nut; do you have a pic of what you found? Orielly had nothing where I'm located--tried 3 different local outlets.

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I believe Randall answered the question above, the lines are different sizes. Inlet is larger and that's what I fixed.