Having completed some other maintenance and ready to start the car, followed my usual procedure:
1- open the engine lid;
2- squeeze the primer bulb a few times to fill the Solex 40Pii4 float bowls - when they are full you can feel the back pressure on the bulb;
3- engine check.
Did the above on Friday afternoon, and found:
- - Hmm, fuel smell is sort of strong. Looked over the lines to the fuel pump, around the carbs, nothing visible.
- - Reached behind the fan shroud to do a "touch test" of the feed line to the carbs.
- - WHOA! The 4 inch flexible section of fuel line is wet! Not a good time to start the engine, let's check this out.
Here's a photo of the "flexible line" - it's only been there about 40 years, since the SC engine was installed. It broke in half in the process of removing the fuel line from the carbs.
The fix required a 4 inch section of new 5/16 inch fuel line and two "fuel injection" style clamps (the ones which do not holes against the fuel line).
Just glad I'm not using an electric pump for carb priming. It would be way too easy to just hop in, flip the pump switch and fire up the car. In this case "fire up" might have been more literal than we'd like. Having to open the engine hatch to squeeze the primer bulb sort of forces a visual inspection, and while you are there it's really easy to check oil level and do a "smell test".
Don't mean to suggest that all of you folks using electric fuel pumps for carb priming don't always open the lid and check the engine before starting the car after a few days. Just admitting some of us might not be so conscientious and sharing my relief at finding the leaky fuel line before driving away.
Just to finish the tale, that little incident was a "wake up call" which inspired me to replace the other sections of flexible fuel line on 89639. The one between the fuel cock and the "bulkhead line", the one between the bulkhead line and the long tunnel line, the one at the back of the tunnel going to my external fuel filter and then up & over the rear axle to the hard line into the engine, and the ones on the fuel pump. Did not take long, and increases the odds of 89639 (and me) surviving for another generation.
Tom
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