Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[pigtin]

How often have you heard the story where a complete stranger gives the owner of a classic car spares FOC in order to clear out his garage?
It has never happened to me in 23 years of driving classics, until today.
The memsahib said that she needed some sea air, so we took the Sprite on a trip to Broadstairs; parked up and went through to town seeking some decent beer, and fish and chips. While wandering through the town I was approached by a small elderly gent who asked ‘was I the driver of the small green sports car’ ‘yeees’ I said cagily,
wondering if perhaps I had unknowingly run over his cat. Whereupon he reached into his carrier bag and said ‘this should fit your car, it’s no use to me’ and produced a brand-spanking-new SU electric petrol pump (50 quid from Moss’), and as much as I tried he would accept nothing for it.
Sometimes, when one watches television, one wonders how many decent people there are left? I now have a little more optimism for the future of our race.

The question is: I am paranoid about having a pump fail on my Sprite. For some reason BMC let the tea-boy, or someone similar choose the location for this item; right underneath the rear wing. With my advancing years it would cause me some irritation to have to change one by the roadside so I wondered if it might be feasible to re-locate (my brand new one) in the boot? Then again, there must be some reason (besides total stupidity) for it being fitted where it is?

Don.

[Uncle Joe]

Pigtin, a lot of people have forgotten this, but SU did 2 kinds of pumps,

The usual one was the ''blower'', which is what you have on your Sprite. I call it that because it 'blows' petrol to the carb

The other is what I refer to as the ''sucker.'' This should be mounted high, preferably under the bonnet, as it can suck the fuel from the tank, and let the carb use it as required. These are available as an aftermarket item today, but from other manufacturers than SU

UJ

[Penman]

Hi
I can remember having to get down on the ground under classic Minis and tapping the pump to get it working again, it seemed that the solenoid would stick and you knew it wasn't working because you didn't hear it clicking for a short while, when you first switched on.
Incidently this was on cars less than 2yrs old when I was instructing in them back in the mid to late 70's.

[pigtin]

Forgotten there were two types of pumps? UJ, I didn't know in the first place. Therefore the Morris range, 8, Minor etc had the sucker type mounted under the bonnet?
My first use of the SU pump was when some bright spark I worked with fitted a heater to a car with thermo-syphon cooling and used it to circulate the water, I tried it on the car I was using at the time and got some sort of heating. But any heating was a luxury in a 30s or 40s car.

Don.

[Uncle Joe]

No need to blush pigtin, this is a case of us oldies having a fuelish thought.

Just in case you are interested, there are some small electronic line pumps available if you dont mind changing from an SU....way easier to fit.

UJ

[pigtin]

Just in case you are interested, there are some small electronic line pumps available if you dont mind changing from an SU....way easier to fit.

UJ[/quote]

Thanks UJ, I had thought about one of the modern ones but having now scored a free SU I will risk my creaking bones by going underneath.
Should have made some sort of mod when I was doing the restoration; one dosn't think if these things at the time.

Don.

Fuelish Thoughts!!! Just got it, I AM slow today.