Lucky Escape!!

[surfblue63]

My GT had a lucky escape the other day. On the way back from the Hurworth Show, see other thread for pictures, my GT started to play up, I suspected a fuelling problem. Eventually it came to halt and would not go any further. It turns out that the fuel pump had most definitely packed up, but worryingly it could have been a lot worse. The pump has obviously been on the car a while, and the car had not seen that much use before I got my hands on it, but this kind of failure could of turned out a lot worse, burning electrics and fuel do not mix.











So if you have an aging Moprod pump like this and you get the slightest hint of it packing up, stop straight away and disconnect it, as you may not be as lucky as my GT.

[rich@minispares.com]

LUCKY!!!!!


it doesn't bare thinking about if it had caught fire does it!

[InimiaD]

That could have turned out to be a lot worse.
Thankfully, you and the rest of the GT survived.

[minimans]

I've never seen an SU pump do that.........................................

[JC T ONE]

Lucky you & your nice GT.

I always have my 2 kg fire extinguisher in the car.

[Old English White]

I've never seen an SU pump do that.........................................

Yep, best to stick with SU in my opinion too. Bluddy electronics not wanted in a Mini if you ask me.....
In all the years I've run BMC cars with SU electric pumps I've had very little trouble with them and always got home. Only once was I tempted to buy an electronic one and it completely failed within a few months ......

As you say, a very lucky escape!

[billycooper]

I used to sell Moprod stuff as a second cheaper line to Genuine BL stuff ... needless to say you get what you paid for (cheap and cheerful) and we had a lot of failures and warranty returns !

[Chris64]

Bloody Hell! Glad you and the car are alright!

[mk1]

Looks like a mighty close call.

The Mini Gods were smiling on you on that day.

M

[surfblue63]

The GT now has a nice new SU Burlen Points pump, but this showed up another fault, the right hand carb had a sticky float. Obviously the old Moprod was supplying at low pressure and had been on the way out for a while.

[Andrew1967]

I've never seen an SU pump do that.........................................

Bluddy electronics not wanted in a Mini if you ask me.....

Couldn't have put it better myself, Richard

That certainly was a close shave though and a huge relief (and luck) that it didn't catch fire.

[Dr S]

Oddly enough, and expecting to get shouted down about this

Its actually quite hard to set petrol on fire, you need to vapourise it and add significant pressure and a spark to make it go usually ... its one of the attributes that it was selected for I suspect!

Oil on the other hand goes much easier on a hot exhaust manifold or similar.

[mk1]

you need to vapourise it and add significant pressure and a spark.

I'm sure you are correct, but the day I had to stand on the side of the road & watch my mk2 Cooper S burn away it was minus 5°C & I don't imagine the fuel was over pressurised in the boot where it had drained from the missing tank breather.

M

[rich@minispares.com]

Its actually quite hard to set petrol on fire, you need to vapourise it and add significant pressure and a spark to make it go usually

surely this is correct if you want to get it explode....but if you just want to find yourself 'in a situation' then it catches fire with remarkable ease.............


one of our customers has recently done him self a serious mischief with a tin of cellulose thinners (pouring it on a BBQ) - its fair to say that he was 'surprised at which everything went wrong'

[minimans]

You need oxygen to produce fire that's why internal tank fuel pumps don't explode every time you start your car! I don't honestly think there was any danger of that pump "blowing up" unless the short had managed to melt the plastic body completely through and and introduced air/oxygen to the fuel. Which brings me to the point how did the pump manage to short out that badly that it melted the internals? was there no fuse?

[abri]

Oddly enough, and expecting to get shouted down about this

Its actually quite hard to set petrol on fire, you need to vapourise it and add significant pressure and a spark to make it go usually ... its one of the attributes that it was selected for I suspect!

Oil on the other hand goes much easier on a hot exhaust manifold or similar.

In my experience an open pool of petrol will catch fire the moment you bring a flame near it. Pour some over a pile of wood, stand a few paces away and throw a match to it and it goes booom!

[Nick W]

I've allways thought the little overflow pipe on h4s a little disconcerting , why don't they drain with a long pipe like on my healey right down and away from the hot exaust!

[Lord Croker]

Oddly enough, and expecting to get shouted down about this

Its actually quite hard to set petrol on fire, you need to vapourise it and add significant pressure and a spark to make it go usually ... its one of the attributes that it was selected for I suspect!

Oil on the other hand goes much easier on a hot exhaust manifold or similar.

I remember a demonstration by a lecturer when I was at college, he plunged a lighted match into a container of petrol & the match was extinguished, a procedure which I have repeated myself whenever someone is critical about me smoking my pipe while working on an engine. (I am also expecting to be shouted down, but I have been doing this kind of thing for 45 years with no harm ) Nevertheless, I do take fire risk seriously, all my cars have been equipped with a good quality fire extinguisher.
I have never had a fire due to petrol dropping on to an exhaust manifold, but as you say, oil & particularly brake fluid is a different matter.

[pad4]

I agree the vapour is lethal - some day ill write about the apprentice, the tree, the duct tape, the thinners , the zippo lighter and the explosion and skin grafts and ruined football career...

pad

[mk1]

I can think of another couple of people on here with similar tales