Hi Guys
My vote is for a cloged fuel line ... at the tank end.
It has happend to 3 seperate series V Alpines of mine. It seem to happen
after the car has been idle quite a while.
The tanks were "painted" on the inside!! About 16 years ago I first noticed
that interior coating was comming off. At first I did notice some crud
in the pump bowl, but that may have been unrelated.
The pealing paint comes off in large enough flakes to clog the fuel line
where it comes off the cross pipe. The 3" cross tube necks down to a
1/4" gas line.
Check to see if there is fuel delivey from the pump. If not check to see if
the input line to the fuel pump is clear. If lowered just a bit it will
gravity feed. A very temporary fix is to try blowing air back down the line
to clear the blockage.. but it will return.
A better but still temporary fix is to pull the fuel line at the cross pipe
and fish out the paint flakes with a hooked wire. Be prepared for a flood
of gas once the blockage is cleared. A full tank is 13 US gallons. My
5 gallon jerry can and oil drain pan filled up real quick... :-(
After a couple of months of clearing the blockage every couple weeks, I
finally broke down and pulled both tanks out. The remaining paint was
very stuburn, the local radiator shop's boiling tank wouldn't touch it..
I removed what I could by abrading the tank's interior by shaking with
a length of sharp edged (sash) chain inside. I then coated the inside
of both tanks with a yellow gas tank sealer to attempt to trap the
remaining original paint. I don't have the trade name handy but it
was available from several adds in Hemmings.
So far, over 16 years on the first car, the problem hasn't returned.
Steve F
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Steve Finberg W1GSL w1gsl@mit.edu
PO Box 397082 MIT Br Cambridge MA 02139-7082 617 258 3754
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