Ran out of fuel - when tank 1/2-full!?

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

"Globules of Water"

Any chance you've got a whole heap of Water in the Tank and its picking that up?

As much as the palaver of doing so sounds like a whole heap of 'fun', maybe its possible to rig a temporary tank at the back of the van, using the existing Supply & Return Hoses and pick up, if possible, perhaps lengthened for the purpose.

Or maybe even a small jar of fuel in the fuel Sender / Pick up recess would be sufficient to 'test the theory'. I guess a half litre jar would get you about 5miles.

(PS: I never use Morrisons or Sainsburys fuel as I've had problems with it in the past, suspect water contamination. I do use Asda and Tesco - most of the time)

[Gibbo2286]

You should never get water in the fuel from any service station puxa, the tanks are regularly checked (there's sump at the bottom of the tanks below the level at which the pick up sits) unless you've bought fuel after an almighty flood.

They check with a dipstick with a blue paste on the end, it changes colour when in contact with water, if water is found the sump is immediately pumped out.

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

Thanks Gibbo. I like the Signature there. I'd substitute even for especially, though.

Today's tastes seem to be tasteless, either that or I'm getting old & out of touch.

[van ordinaire]

You took a PC Cresta to Scotland - never mind the caravan!!! Still at least you stayed on main roads. Back in the '70's I toured the Highlands in a Wolseley 6/110 - but I digress.

Like I said before, I'm not taking the tank out again [if only because I can't face (risk?) another run-in with the Council over diesel spillage] but just so that I understand better by "sender unit" do you mean the one for the gauge? If so,I can't see how that would help. As for the pick-up,there's no pipe as such, just one-piece plastic thing with a filter basket at the bottom & "in" & "out" stubs at the top; how far it reaches is pre-determined & can't change. I suppose the plastic could degrade & fail above the 1/2-full level but, from memory, that's not something that an inspection would reveal. Is there any significance in the fact that I had the same problem before, but at 1/4-full (easier to live with), which disappeared after,in the course of dealing with an air leak (eliminated without ever being found), I removed the the pick-up, cleaned & refitted the (detached) filter & put it back?

[Peter.N.]

I digress. At least your 6/110 had a bit of power, the 4/108 was 54 bhp, max 30 mph in a head wind with the caravan.

Peter

[Gibbo2286]

I digress. At least your 6/110 had a bit of power, the 4/108 was 54 bhp, max 30 mph in a head wind with the caravan.

Peter

My favourites at that time Austin Westminsters and Wolseley 6/110s, I had a white Westminster, used to get stopped by enthusiastic cops for a chat "Was this one of ours?"

Sadly my last Wolseley 6/110 was written off when a busy housewife did a U turn across my path in a Renault ten and died as a result.

====================

Back on subject has anyone got a tank filter and pick up unit to demonstrate the innards for van?

[white exec]

My first driving sortie to Scotland was 1970, as a student, with a Rover 3-litre P5. Loch Long, Arrochar, Ft.William, Skye . . . hooked!

Returned a year or so later - this time in a '59 Mini (with 1100 engine) - just as North Sea Oil was bringing untold funds ashore, and windey Highland roads were being widened and straightened. From Ft.Wm. again, this time Applecross and north, and 'hopscotched' out to Harris & Lewis. In Stornoway (we were camping), it started to rain, and was to do so for a week. The drive back from Ft.Wm. to Sussex took 14 hours, and the wipers were never turned off. We even got stopped by the Police on the M5, seemingly because (a) we had a black Morris Mini, (b) it had a yellow Austin engine, and (c) it took the Police a long time to catch up with us; we were actually cruising at 70. Weeks later, the Chief Constable apologised. Great memories!

[Peter.N.]

I had the smaller ones, Oxford, Cambridge and Wolseley 15/60, couldn't afford the fuel for the big ones.

Peter

[van ordinaire]

I had a 15/60 (which acquired an MGA 1600 lump + Riley 4/72 carbs) as did a friend, 2 others had an A55 Cambridge & an Oxford - & weekends & evenings maintained 4(?) A60's for a local cab co. so well versed in all things BMC Farina & when the 6/110 was going to be scrapped I gave him the £10 scrap value & drove it home. It did need a fair amount of work but I had it a year, did 10,000 miles in it (still my only car to have been to land's End & John o' Groats) - & then it was stolen! During that time I also got a Westy for nothing - & it was delivered - only needed tyres & an exhaust for an MoT which I passed on to a friend who eventually chopped it in against a very nice P5B. Oh, the 6/110 was black, the Met loved it &,certainly around London, everyone else just used to pull over.

As for fuel costs, somehow I never thought about it, Armstrong-Siddley Star Saphires & Daimler Majestic Majors were among others seriously considered as only cars - even a Vanden Plas 4 litre hearse (£45 with a seized engine, but came with a spare).

I could go on, but if we could get back on topic, a picture of tank filter and pick up unit would be handy, so I better understand the help I'm being given, as I really didn't pay the unit a great deal of attention when I had it in my hand.

[Peter.N.]

I also had a fair bit of experience with BMC motors. Learn't to drive in a nearly new works A40 van with the 1200 cc engine in 1956, the 'A' series ended up bigger than that! Replaced a couple of head gaskets on that and a number of front shock absorbers when it danced all over the road and you couldn't control it. I also had a few diesel Oxfords, one series 2 and one 'all metal' estate and a series 2 wooden estate, don't see many of those now, fitted Perkins engines.

Peter

[Gibbo2286]

I found this on the net, it's a typical tank gauge unit although not specifically Citroen. the outside will be covered in a gauze filter, it occurred to me that if the gauze is clogged part way up and the fuel cannot get through the blockage you will only be able to pump fuel from above that level.

Maybe a blow through from the front with compressed air might clear it (if that's the cause)

[van ordinaire]

Ah, the 1200 "B" series - I briefly had a Cowley, so I know about them too. Interesting acquisition, originally the "price" was a Minor front wing but eventually it was "if you can start it, it you can have it" A battery (probably old but freshly charged) took care of that, only to find the clutch was seized: bit more of a challenge that!
Then there was the A55 van I drove one Christmas for a local off licence: that ridiculous (column) gear change: pull knob out for reverse - except it's only a press fit; so go to back up in a parking space, knob comes off, flies out the (open) window - & rolls under the van!

Now, on with the motley:- C15 fuel pick-up is nothing like that (well it may be inside - but I don't have X-ray vision!) it's solid plastic & the only filter is a small hemi-spherical one (think nylon mesh tea strainer) at the bottom. The most likely explanation offered for me finding it lying on the bottom of the tank was that, some years before, compressed air had been used just as you suggest & the filter, being almost completely blocked, was blown off the unit. Interestingly, that suggests that when it developed similar symptoms about a year ago - there was no filter on the pick-up.

Finally, going back a bit, I think we can discount water contamination, for a whole raft of reasons (see earlier posts) not least of which is that as diesel would float on top, the pick-up filter would be permanently submerged in water.

[Hell Razor5543]

There are microbes that live in diesel. Somewhere on this forum are photographs of fuel pickups that are clogged with what looks like brown seaweed. I wonder if you have this problem.

[Peter.N.]

Nearly all my early cars were column change which was the norm at the time. At least the A40 change linkage was adjustable so you could keep down the amount of slop. I had a '50 Hillman Minx, an A70, then a couple of 'E' model Velox/Cresta's, a '57 Cowley 1500 engine, then a PA Cresta, I think they were all column change, the last one I had was a Peugeot 404 diesel that had a brilliant change, less slop than some floor changes. I also had a Hawk and a couple of Super Snipes, I think they were column change too. I'm sure someone will tell me if they weren't.

Peter

[van ordinaire]

Certainly the Humber Imperial I thought I was getting was column change, although I wonder of the Super Snout estate motorway patrol cars were; I know the police Mk III Zephyrs were floor change. That may have been because the column change was so dreadful: the lever used to shear across the pivot pin. (curiously police spec. Cherokees are column change - but's to accommodate all the radio & switch gear in a special, enormous, console!) I had a 400E Thames that had a linkage that used to over centre & jam solid. "Flying Pigs" (Mk IV's to the unitiated) were so vague they seemed to have at least 6 positions - none of which were reverse, & when you're trying to back one that's about a foot from a plate glass window,that's quite nerve wracking.
Not surprised the Pug one was good but the column change par excellence must've been the R16 TX: to the best of my knowledge, the only 5 speeder!