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[w3526602]

Hi,

From time to time, I mention AUTOVAC fuel lift devices, coz my father declared they were the best fuel lifting system, using depression in the inlet manifold, so they are not actually a pump. I believe they can be primed from a can, to get you home in short stages.

Today, some 60 years after, I done a Google, and found this ... https://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/autovac.htm

My first impression is that there would be insufficient "head" above the carburettor, under a Land Rover. bonnet (hood). It might be useful knowledge on Quiz Nights.

602

[Ferret1958uk]

I have just rebuilt two. One for my parents 1927 Austin Twenty-Six, and one for a 1930's Morris Cowley.  They are so easy to work on. All I needed to do was replace the seals to prevent leaks.

[w3526602]

Hi Ferret,

Egad! An answer ... which was more than I was expecting ...  .  Which brings me to the Secondary Question(s).

In view of the problems that members seem to be having with (for instance) fuel apparently running back into the tank overnight, etc, would you consider them a good thing on an S2?

Churnings in this little brain suggest that a typical fuel pump gives about 5psi (aprox 1.5 metres head) ....a mechanical pump will give a steady pressure, but I suspect an electric pumps pressure will vary "between clicks", but I can't be "naffed" to do the sums.

I suspect that the "head" in an autovac will be measured in  centimetres, which will affect the float level.

My first "car" was a 1934 BSA 8hp 3-wheeler, with the petrol tank under the bonnet, above the passenger's feet, so very little head. Gravity feed, open bonnet to add my normal half-gallon. ( £0.10p of JET) I can't remember if there was a fuel tap.  My Grey Fergie also had gravity feed, from the petrol tank above the engine, as did my Suzuki 250cc Quad, bought new and fitted with a "street-legal kit".(Full set of lights and a steel petrol tank added about £250 to the purchase price (late 1980s). I was stopped by Plod, who got all flustered when he noticed the tax disc.

602

[richardhula]

Back in the day they were a very common sight on half cab bus's. Both shown below have them.

[w3526602]

Hi,

Those half-cab  buses remind me of a pub-landlord, somewhere in South Wales, who was an ex-Navy flyer.

He told me he had taken a hump-back bridge too fast in an early Lotus Elan. He parked the car neatly on the engine cover of a similar bus that was coming the other way ... front end through the front passenger window, leaving him eye-ball to eye-ball with the bus driver.

Pinch of salt time, but amusing.

602

PS  .... Banstead? That was two hoots and a holler from my crooked dentist, who was struck-off for charging the NHS for anaesthetic that he wasn't injecting into his patients.  I didn't know that dentistry could be relatively painless until I met an Army dentist ion Arabia.