Technical Hose connector came out of carb! How to fix it?

[Noah500]

We had a great run out for the FBHVC/NSPCC Drive-it Day today with Overton Classic Revival, ending up at the Crofton Beam Engines site in Wiltshire.

Long story short: on the way back on A303 doing a comfortable 60+mph it suddenly lost power. I managed to pull off the road onto the verge and it quickly became clear that the top fuel hose feeding into the carb had come off and must have been spewing petrol all over the engine bay . Looking at it more closely, it wasn't that the hose clip had given way but the whole brass connector (the ridged connector piece) had come out of the carb itself. Thinking back, there has been a bit of a fuel smell in the engine bay since I've had the car (3 and a half years), so presumably it has been working loose for a while.

So: is it fixable or do I need a whole new carb, or new head part?

 

[Noah500]

... Or is it a screw fit? It didn't look like it

 

[Ant Knox]

It is a known issue! I caught mine before catastrophic failure, fortunately.
repaired mine by thoroughly cleaning out the hole in the alloy carb cover, lightly 'keyed' the brass spigot and used a JB Weld-type epoxy metal to refix it. Just ensure you don't get the epoxy in the tube (I applied a thin ring around the spigot before inserting it, rather than putting adhesive in the hole on the carb.)
It has lasted well for four years so far.
Alternatively, you can buy threaded spigots, which you'll obviously need to tap the hole for.

 

[Noah500]

Thanks... Sounds like a bit of work either way, certainly more than I will be able to do before getting up at 3:30 tomorrow morning to fly to Italy, returning late Friday night and going to Brooklands Italian Car Day next Saturday!

Any suggested source of a suitable spigot, or will any of the right size do?

 

[the hobbler]

Thanks... Sounds like a bit of work either way, certainly more than I will be able to do before getting up at 3:30 tomorrow morning to fly to Italy, returning late Friday night and going to Brooklands Italian Car Day next Saturday!

Any suggested source of a suitable spigot, or will any of the right size do?

There is a company called "Continent Electronics" (be careful, NOT continetAL electronics who are quite a different company) who sell a big range of threaded fuel-line spigots. I have used these a lot, with no problems. If your fuel line is 6mm, go for the 8mm---you will need a couple of appropriate taps---possible a "2nd" and a "plug" and file down the length of the threaded section. Put the spigot in with a touch of "loc-tite". Alternatively, use Peter's method with "J.P.Weld"

 

[jackwhoo]

Reuse existing brass "spigot" using method described by Ant Knox.
If you don't want to use jb weld use a fuel resistant aerobic thread locking liquid.

 

[Noah500]

Thanks for the responses... sounds like it may not be quite so disastrous as I had thought

 

[Noah500]

Is either method (existing spigot or threaded replacement) feasible to do in situ. If not, do all gaskets need to be replaced? Just asking to set my own expectations and get hopefully all the required parts before I start taking things apart...

 

[Noah500]

As a possible third alternative, I have a friend who says he has a couple of carb top plates, so I could conceivably swap that out instead, if one is the same type as mine

 

[the hobbler]

Is either method (existing spigot or threaded replacement) feasible to do in situ. If not, do all gaskets need to be replaced? Just asking to set my own expectations and get hopefully all the required parts before I start taking things apart...

Personally I would take the carb off to do the job (whichever method you decide to do) and take the opportunity to renew all gaskets, check that the spacer is flat (on both sides), check that the carb flange is flat and generally check that everything is "tickety-boo"