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MG TD TF 1500 - Fuel pump leak photo

Hi all,
Just noticed my fuel pump has a little leak. Seems to be a gasket I guess. You can see the "wet" looking stuff in photo attached. I tightened down the screws a little but no help.
Is this serious or can I just ignore it for now? I read some in the archives about problems with some brands of new gaskets. Any suggestions on what to use?
Thanks!!
Ed


efh Ed

That looks like a real fire hazard; gas leaking right above the fuel pump points which may spark.

The leak, if it is not the fuel line fittings, may be the diaphram in the pump itself. It could probably be rebuilt if they sell the diaphram or a kit for fixing it.

I wouldn't drive it, or run the engine much until that is fixed. I would recommend replacing the points with a solid state switching circuit. Some people on this BBS rebuild them and can make this conversion, I am told.

Larry
Larry Ayres

Upon close examination, it would appear that the leak is eminating from the joint in the aluminum body. Most likely due to a bad diaphragm. There are a number of folks, myself included, who rebuild these pumps. Contact me offline if you are interested.

Cheers,
Lew Palmer
Lew Palmer

Had the same problem and found it was the summer addistive fuel that was eating up the gaskets. They turned into a sticky mess. I got some of the new Burlen gaskets from Dave DuBois and it all went away.
Colin Stafford

Interesting location for the TS relay and flasher can.

dave
Dave Braun

Ed - That looks like the gasket between the pump body and what is called the sandwich plate is leaking, but I would expect to see the wetness flow around the sandwich plate and off the bottom of it, where as a lot of the wetness is going right onto the coil housing. If you have tightened the screws around the entire perimeter of the coil housing, I would suggest wiping everything down with solvent to get rid of the stain and then see if you can track where it is coming from. With the small amount of leakage, I wouldn't be too concerned about driving the car for short distances and watch for a new stain to appear. I am thinking that it might be the fuel line where it screws onto the elbow. If it were leaking there it would drip down on the junction of the sandwich plate and the coil housing. You might run a paper towel around that joint with the fuel line and the elbow and see if you come up with some fuel on the towel. That looks like a relatively new pump, judging from the end cover on it.

I don't like seeing a filter on the inlet side of a pump like you have. If that filter becomes clogged to the point it won't allow any fuel through, it will stall the pump in a current on condition and if the power is left on for any period of time (such as while troubleshooting), it can burn out the swamping resistor inside the coil housing. If the pump is a points style pump, it will result in premature burning of the points. If it is an all electronic pump, it will stop the pump completely. If you want to have an extra filter in line, put it on the outlet side of the pump. The extra filter is not really necessary, as there is a filter inside the pump that removes any large particles and the rest of the system is relatively immune to smaller particles - it just passes them right on through to the filters in the float bowl covers.
Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

Ed Don't eliminate the armoured hose itself. I had a similar problem and found that the hose was nothing but rubber tubing with the braid woven over it. Look in one end of the hose, if it's black that is probably what you have. Replace with a Teflon hose with the braid.
Cheers,

Bob
R. K. (Bob) Jeffers

Dave,
I agree that it's the gasket you mention above. I wipe it up and as soon as engine runs it starts seeping out again imediately. I should fix this now!How do I go about purchasing these "Brulen" gaskets from you? What info do you need? Please email me.
Thank you all very much!!!
Ed
efh Ed

The best fix would be to have Dave DuBois rebuild the pump and convert it to REAL solid state. You won't buy another one. Satisfied customer.
L.A. Leclerc

Larry - Thanks for the good words. I hope the next one (which will be mailed tomorrow) works as well. Ed's pump looks to be a relatively new pump and could well be one of the all electronic pumps from Burlen Fuel Systems (although I don't see the tag saying electronic on it). Either way, the pump probably has many good miles in it before it needs a restoration if we can get the leak stopped. Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

Ed - I copied your e-mail address and pasted it into an e-mail to you and it bounced. Please send me an e-mail at the address above. Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

"Interesting location for the TS relay and flasher can."

For some reason I have the same. I guess I decided upon it around 1967 when I decided to remove the Scintilla trafficators and imitate the schematics of the late TD.

By the way, that fuel pump looks odd to me with that hump in the front.

Denis
Denis L Baggi

Denis - "that fuel pump looks odd to me with that hump in the front" That is the end cover that Burlen Fuel Systems uses on most of their new pumps and is the reason that I stated that the pump looked to me like it is relatively new - that and the softer edges on the bosses at the bottom of the pump. Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

Thanks Dave, happy to learn something new every day!

Denis
Denis L Baggi

For the record, I installed new gaskets from Dave DuBois the other day and they worked like a charm! Dry as a bone! Plus Dave is a wealth of "related" information! Thanks again Dave!
Ed
efh Ed

This thread was discussed between 23/10/2007 and 05/11/2007

MG TD TF 1500 index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG TD TF 1500 BBS is active now.