• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Excessive Fuel Pressure - how do I stop the leak?

Share this page

Hegg

Hegg

Jedi Hopeful
Offline
So I've been taking apart a few things so that I can get my carbs off and do a rebuild on 'em. Of course I had to remove the fuel line from the fuel input rail to the carburetors. That of course leaked all over. So I plugged it up with a rag/towel and thought that would do it. Nope, it kept leaking.

Needless to say, I've tried many things over the past few days and it just leaks past all of them. I finally took of the rubber line that goes into the fuel pump and yikes!
shocked.gif
fuel is POURING out of that line. It just doesn't stop. It pours out at quite a high rate (enough pressure that it's squirting UP out of the tube about 1 inch). I finally got it stopped (I think) by cutting the end of the hose off, putting in a large bolt, then clamping down on it with one of the hose clamps.

So the question is -- is this normal? It seems like an aweful lot of fuel pressure to be coming up the line BEFORE the fuel pump. One of the reasons I was going to rebiuld my carbs is because they seem to be leaking really bad (fuel drips off the bottom). Surely a gasket could help that, but if I'm having that much fuel pressure constantly pushing against my carbs when the car is off, what's to stop it from leaking all over?

Assuming this isn't normal, where do I start checking for problems? There's not anything between the fuel tank and the fuel pump, is there? It's gonna be a bugger of a time getting that hose back on the fuel pump once I'm done...

Thanks in advance! Lots of expertise here!
 
Im thinkin that your fuel line is below the level of fuel in your tank and your just seeing gravity in action... The only other thing I can think of that would do it is a pressurized tank, (faulty venting system). Good luck.
 
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by steve99:
Im thinkin that your fuel line is below the level of fuel in your tank and your just seeing gravity in action... The only other thing I can think of that would do it is a pressurized tank, (faulty venting system). Good luck.<hr></blockquote>

Now that I think of it, the tank is rather full, so it could just be the weight of the fuel causing the pressure. I removed the gas cap to make sure any pressure in the top was relieved, but that just seemed to make the fuel come out faster.

I think you're probably right though -- the fuel line would be below the fuel level in the tank, so it's probably just that.

Thanks!
 
I had the same thing happen when i changed a fuel filter on my TR6. I solved the problem by using a pair of vise grips as a clamp on the rubber fuel line. Just make sure to use a good supply of masking tape so the teeth of the vice grips don't eat your rubber fuel line hose, and clamp it just enough to stop the flow. There's probably a better tool to use, but the vise grips were all I had at the time, and they worked, so why pay more?
wink.gif
 
I inserted a bolt in the fuel line and clamped with a hose clamp.
 
On the TR7, the entire fuel tank is higher than the level of the line that goes into the fuel pump. If your tank is full, the level of the fuel is higher than the top of the engine.
 
the words you don't want to hear under a TR6 when you're trying to clamp the fuel line is....."Hey, its dark down here, does anyone have a match?"
grin.gif
 
Back
Top