gravity feed from a gas can?
you nailed it!!!
we gravity fed the carb from a gas can in the rear seat with the hose going out the rear pop out....got us home
i was thinking about the gas can in the back seat & popout window scenario the day after the break-down and thought it could have worked better (read safer) than what we had going on.
however....at the time of the break down we had no gas can and a very limited amount of hose.
so here's what happened. bear with me...this story may take awhile!
first of all...some very friendly locals pulled over and really went out of there way to help us out. they had better cell phone reception than us and were able to get a message on daves cell describing the predicament. they also provided some white hose (1/2" od...the plumbing kind!!) and were very friendly and helpfull when it came time to rig this system up. they even drove to little fort and got us an electric fuel pump that we were very close to plumbing and wiring so we could continue on.
secondly...a very kind hearted man by the name of carl (mr sweep) was driving the sweep vehicle (follows the rally making sure everyone is getting along ok) and was a huge help aswell by running to meet dave (who was kind enough to drive all the way from sunpeaks with a good used fuel pump) in barriere aswell as helping out with tie-downs, encouragement and following us down the highway making sure everything was allright.
disclaimer---the events described below were done in an act of desperation and should not be used as common practice. it's not the safest/smartest way to do things...but it got us off the side of a mountainous road in the middle of butt-f@#k nowhere...and into the town of butt-f@#k nowhere!!
so when it was down & dirty on the side of the road with no gas can and a foot of vacuum line for hose, the locals pulled over and made a call to dave (who then called mr sweep) and provided us with the white hose and a 500ml water bottle. one of the locals was a heavy duty mechanic and also had some great ideas and some good connections for parts in little fort...and a flat deck if we needed it!!! we filled the water bottle with gas and cut a hole in the lid just big enough for the vacuum hose. we then put the vacuum hose in the bottle, stuffed the white hose (1/2" od plumbing hose from the locals) onto the vacuum hose (with electrical tape & a hose clamp for safety of course
) and the stuffed the fuel line from the carb into the end of the white hose (with electrical tape & a hose clamp for safety of course
). we zap strapped the 500ml water bottle to the louvers in the decklid (length of hose was preventing us for any other mounting place) and got the feed started and motored down the highway for a bit.....
until the bottle was empty....which luckily just happened to occur on a gradual uphill left hand corner!!!
so fill up the bottle and get a little further down the road....at which point mr sweep caught up with us!!! and he had a gerry can!!
the locals had been following us this whole time, and we made the decision for them to go to town and get the electrical fuel pump (because at this time we didnt know that dave had got our message or what other kind of extra fuel pump parts we would have at our disposal) and mr sweep and myself ditched the 500ml auxilary gas tank for the gas can kind (more fuel = longer distance traveled)!!
so we got our tie downs and hooked them through the louvers and secured the gas can to the back of the car the best we could. again, the back seat would have been best, but the more i think of it, the more i think that our biggest restriction was the length of our home-made fuel line.
so after smoking the front shoes on the a huge downhill about 5kms out of little fort...the car cuts out again. the homemade hose is no reaching far enough into the can and picking up any fuel.
at that exact time mr sweep heard from dave, so lori & i decided to hang out on the side of the road while mr sweep took off to meet dave and bring him back to us with some fuel pump parts.
but i wasnt content with just sitting there so i reconfigured the gas can & hose so we could get some more feed, got the car going, and limped it into little fort.
just as we pulled into little fort is when the locals returned with the electrical fuel pump. and allthough i was very thankfull that the locals had been such a big help and had found an electric pump for us...i was kind of fighting the urge of mounting, plumbing and wiring the pump to the car. but i still really wasnt 100% sure what kind of parts dave had and if they would work...so i was really torn as to what to do. ideally, dave would have parts that were oem and would work....as a back-up we had an electric pump that was ready to go.
so mr sweep & dave return, we find out dave has a complete pump (taken out of russels super on the side of the duffy lake road as he replaced it with a new one from the frose's...see pic in the gallery) and within 15 minutes we had the thing in and the car was running!!! eureka!!!
i whole-heartedly need to thank carl (mr sweep) & dave and joe & bonnie (the locals) for all their help.
joe & bonnie were the kindest, most helpfull people that we could have met. they went way out of their way to help us out and lori & i really had a chance to bond and get to know them through this whole escapade. their whole perception of the way things should be is "pay it forward". which is the way lori & i like to live our lives too. do good things for people while not looking for anything in return and naturally good things will happen to you. and it is very apparent that mr sweep & dave are the same way. i insisted that i needed to give these people something for all their help. but no amount of persuasion would work, and none of them wanted anything in return. dave gave joe & bonnie some spring thaw merch and lori & i thanked them profusely and gave them a good hug and a handshake...and that was all they wanted.
after alot of arm twisting and arguing (
), mr sweep & dave agreed to let lori & i treat them to dinner and a few beverages and that is all they would allow us to do for them.
also, big thanks to the frose's for supplying russell with a fuel pump and russell for supplying me with his old fuel pump. plus the old guy in the mini that had some extra fuel line for me when i found leaky line the next day. i'll get you all back somehow. good things are coming your way!!
and so the story goes...it's why we're all in this big mess together. pay it forward folks!!!
