So I noticed the other day while parked at work that with the nose lower than the rear end I was ending up with a puddle of fuel under my skylark. :shock: When I got it home I parked in my driveway (nose up) it didn't leak anything. o No: I was looking under it today and its leaking from some where. I just replaced the rubber line from the hardline to the pump, and I check that connection dry as can be. So somewhere between where the rubber line ends and the hard line exits the frame under the driver's seat it's leaking. I'm assuming I have two ways to fix this, if it is infact a leaking hardline. option a) the cheap, easy and not right way. Cut the metal line where I can see it and run rubber line all the way to the pump. Option B) the more expensive, harder, correct way. order replacment hardline and re-run it (I haven't looked at a manual yet, but I'm assuming that metal line runs from the front all the way down to the rubber line that feeds into the tank?) Any other options or ideas? Car is a '66 Buick Skylark 4-dr with a 340, I don't race just a summer driver/cruiser.
Shouldnt be too hard to pinpoint the leak. If in fact its the steel line that leaking, cut the section out with a small tubing cutter, get a length of steel line from the auto parts store and splice it in with a pair of compression fittings. Probably be cheaper than 8 feet of rubbr line and hose clamps too
I got a pin hole leak from road debris in a hard line. I simply took a piece of 3/8th fuel line about an inch long, slit it and wrapped it around the leak and stuck a hose clamp over it, never leaked again. The line before the pump is under very little pressure, just the static amount based on the fuel level in the tank.
thanks! I noticed it doesn't leak while running, so it's got to be very tiny leak. with the compression fitting solution other than a line cutter, do i need to find that tool that makes that lip on the line? Or is it similar to running water line to a fridge? where the fitting is somewhat tapered and the bolt provides the force to clamp down (only experience I have with small lines and comression fittings)
The compression fitting requires no tube endforming other than deburring, it's the same joint you see on the oil presure gauge tube using brass ferrules which slip over each tube end after the female tube nut has been slipped over the tube. When you inspect your existing fuel line, look for areas that received constant abrasion and inspect the tube ends for cracks on or around the flare. May be difficult to detect the area of the leak without rigging up your own air-under-water pressure test with compressed air. Devon
for whatever it's worth, if you install a compression fitting anywhere on a fuel line, you cannot put it on any sanctioned track. no tech inspection will allow compression fittings on fuel lines.
Welcome aboard! First, please let us know what type of track you meant, and by whom it's sanctioned. Also, please quote the section in the sanctioning body's rule book which corroborates this. That will be a big help for others who are interested. Thanks! Devon
Well, I don't have any plans to race it anytime soon. I mean we all know how fast my 4-dr sedan, with a 2bbl and 2.78 gears is going to go ......:laugh: I've seen where they'll limit the length of rubber hose you can have in use for fuel line (12" at some vintage drag event at Byron Dragstrip IL)
If it helps? My '67 GS had a hole chaffed through the vent or return fuel line where it goes over the rear axle (there is a frame member there that it goes over), didn't know it existed until I started to use it as return pressure line with my electric fuel pump, nice mess the first time firing that up! Fortunately no fires though! It looked like it rubbed on the trunk floor and just wore through about a 1/4" worth of line. Mike
