I recall a similar experience long ago; it was night and raining.
The '75 and later cars have fuel pumps mounted half-way into the trunk;
older cars have them mounted in what would be the area of the chassis
dog-leg if there were one. Regardless of location, pumps do get old and
they can leak. Hoses are also suspect, as are all connections. Once
you have daylight you can lift the car for a good look.
Even if it is the pump that is leaking now, it would be good practice
to relace hoses too. Use some PBBlaster or other penetrant on the brass
fittings before wrenching. They can be stuck tight and they are delicate.
Some owners install in-line filters in the hose between tank and SU
pump. It's not original, but it's not a bad idea either. 30 year-old
tanks can have a bit of rusty sediment. There is an in-tank screen, but
it's old also.
Bob
On Sat, 28 Oct 2006 22:07:22 -0400 Desmond Mullen
<dkmullen@email.unc.edu> writes:
> Hello,
>
> I went out to the grocery store this evening and filled up my '78
> MGB
> on the way. I recently did a basic tune-up and cleaned and tweaked
> the
> carb, so I was curious to see what mileage I was getting.
>
> It turned out I was getting 10 miles per gallon - about half what I
> got
> before the tune-up! I thought and thought and figured there must be
> a
> leak somewhere, the car is running nicely and that difference in
> mileage couldn't be explained by something being out of adjustment.
>
> Sure enough, when I got home, I looked and saw a drip coming from
> the
> line about a foot or so forward of where the fuel line comes out of
> the
> tank (on its way to the carb).
>
> It's nighttime and I didn't have a good flashlight so I couldn't
> really
> see very well, but there's some device there that - for a moment -
> looked like a big in-line fuel filter. I'm sure it's not, but I
> don't
> know what it is. I'll certainly investigate in the light of day
> tomorrow, but does anyone have any ideas? It appears that the fuel
> is
> leaking from this thing or from a connection to this thing. I
> couldn't
> find anything like it in any catalog or reference book I have.
>
> Auxiliary fuel pump? Giant fuel filter? ??
>
> Thanks!
>
> -Desmond
> '78 MGB (still fairly new to me)
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