My Fun Morning (fuel leaks)

[Tom Mandera <tsm1@domain.elided>]

My '77 Scout II has been getting progressively more difficult to start
in the mornings.  It has a slow fuel leak that's allowing the carb float
bowl to empty overnight.  I've noticed it dripping a little fuel from
the fuel pump area before.. and tightened up the hose clamp on the fuel
line from the tank once or twice.. 

It'd been getting worse, but I've grown accustomed over the last two or
three weeks to just cranking 'till it runs.  I had planned on fixing it
last night, but got called away to a Quake Fest. :-)

Naturally, it got onery this morning.

Crank crank crank... crank more... and more.. hmmm..much longer than
yesterday.. 

starts cranking slower.. grrrr...

So I pop the hood and head to the garage... no ether... fine, some
WD40... it sputters once or twice, but still won't run.  Fuel filter is
empty of fuel.

OK.. I've never tried the "fuel on the air filter cover" trick before..
why not?

Hmm.. no "cup" to pour gas from.. I guess I just use the spout on the
5gal Jerry can... Ooops!  as I dump gas all over the engine, and a
little on the air filter.

Hmmm...

Crank it over.. it RUNS!  Ya!... then dies when it runs out of gas. 
Grrrr.

Crank it again... then I hear a POOF and look around my
still-iced-over-windshield and notice the engine on fire.  !!!!Yikes!!!

I grabbed the air filter cover and flung it away... great move, splash
more gas around.

Now I'm watching the air filter housing with flames, the coil area with
flames, and other selected areas of collected grease now burning on my
engine.  **D'oh**!

"FIRE EXTINGUISHER!"  So I flip the driver's seat forward and look on
the floor for the extinguisher.. hmmm.. where is it?  Yank some stuff
from under the seat.. not finding it fast enough.. grrr (Note to self:
finally get around to mounting extinguisher tomorrow).

So, instead, I turn my attention back to the burning gas in the engine
bay.. and start blowing out the flames.. some good huffs and puffs and I
can blow the flames out... starting first at the coil area.. then the
air filter housing.. then I noticed more on the other side of the
motor... images of my engine blowing up in my face flash in front of me
as I finally blow out the fire.  Whew.

Hmmm.  I flip the driver's seat forward and grab a McDonalds coffee cup
from the floor (found a cup), put the air filter cover back on, fill the
cup with gas and then pour a small amount onto the air filter.. start
the Scout back up, and it doens't die again.. the fuel pump is now
pumping fuel, the filter is full, life is good.

YIKES.

So... hopefully I find some time tonight (between School, work,
binderchat, and everything else) to try tightening the hose clamp again
or figure out where the real leak is coming from.  I suppose it *could*
be from the outlet side of the pump, leaking down from the filter area
thanks to not-enough tight hose clamps there.. I'll have to do some
tracing I guess.

But.. it was certainly an exciting morning... 

Kids - don't try this at home

Hmm.. Ken wants to figure out how to cook Manifold Burritos.. heck, I
know how to turn your motor into a Barbeque!

-Tom Mandera, Helena MT
http://www.tmcom.com/~tsm1/scout