Sorry I wasn't online last night chaps. Spent a day at my brother Brock's workshop in Wiltshire.
We had a look at plumbing in the original Pop fuel tank that's stood in the pick-up bed. At the moment, I'm running on just the 4 gallon Reliant tank, tucked underneath the bed, (used to be 4 1/2 gallons but we had to trim it down to fit between the chassis rails). 20 - 25 to the gallon means that has a range of about 80 miles, which is fine, just means I stop to fill up quite regularly. The Pop tank's about 6 gallons, so the 2 combined would give me about 200 miles -almost triple what I have now.
Brock's just set up in business as a race car, race transporter, general fabrication builder, so I was there as a customer.
http://www.fieldcraftfabrication.co.uk/Nothing to photograph really, but he made up brackets for the 2nd electric fuel pump & filter under the pick-up bed, then made a T piece to splice into the existing fuel line. Couldn't try it cos we didn't have any fuel clips & the pump pressure would probably blow the hoses off, (bought some clips today but haven't had a chance to fit them). Then he wired a 3 position toggle switch into the spot on the gearbox tunnel where the heater control valve used to be. That will control the 2 fuel pumps, so I can run on the main, old Pop tank, then when that runs dry I can switch over to the reserve Reliant tank. There's a pair of coloured LEDs too, green for main, red for reserve, so I can see at a glance which tank I'm on. The central off position on the switch will also act as an immobiliser. That all seemed to work, so hopefully tomorrow I can splice into the fuel line, put some fuel in the tanks & try it.
Then we fixed a couple of smaller faults. Having said the other day that I've had no problems with vibration in the headlights, one of the high beams packed up & when I took the lens out I found the terminal block that plugs onto the bulb had shed one of it's blades. The little brass retaining rivet had broken, but Mr B was able to fix it with a tiny nut & bolt.
No fog light. The bulb was fine & further testing showed it was the Lucas switch on the dashboard at fault. I'm not at all impressed with these. Lucas toggle switches used to be good quality heavy duty metal bodied things. Now they're lightweight plastic & very flimsy. This is the 2nd one to fail. The wires were pushed onto the switch terminals, but the terminals were loose inside the switch itself. Brock re-crimped everything & it was still working when I got home, but I've already bought heavyweight American switches to replace them.
The windscreen washers weren't working either. No power supply to the switch & no apparent reason for it. A new feed, piggy backed off the wiper switch, sorted it. I have to remove the panelling under the dash to reach the switches & it's getting annoying now, which is another reason for relocating them to a panel on top of the gearbox tunnel.
After a very pleasant meal with Mr & Mrs Brock, I eventually bimbled back home, enjoying a leisurely drive through the Wiltshire countryside, & not reaching the workshop & covering the Pop up for the night till around 1.0.clock in the morning.
Thanks for all your work Steve.
