I fired up my TR7 today and as I let it idle a bit, I smelled gas, so naturally, I shut it down quickly. Looking under the car, I saw a steady stream of gas hitting the floor so I popped open the hood and started looking. The stream of gas was raining down on the fuel pump and dipstick so I figured it was the fuel line connection at the rear carb.
Not so!
After some feeling around and looking with a flashlight and mirror, the culprit was the plastic float bowl plug on the underside of the rear carb. It spun easily in the carb body but the front one did too, yet it didn't leak.
Anyhow, I pulled it loose and the o-ring that seals it was cracked and dry rotted. Fortunately, I have a decent supply of various sized o-rings, so I replaced BOTH of them. No more leaks.
If this would have happened on the side if the road, I think I would have been screwed since I don't carry o-rings around with me regularly and other than trying to wrap it with some very thin electrical tape (which probably wouldn't work) I can't think if a way to temporarily stop such a leak.
So remember boys and girls, all that it takes to have a catastrophic fuel leak is a cheap o-ring that decides it doesn't want to do it's job anymore. The good thing is that you don't really need any tools to replace it if you can finagle your hands under the carbs with the aircleaner still attached.
If you have 15 minutes and a selection of o-rings, you might consider going out and changing yours right NOW. Just pull out the plug(s), roll the old o-ring off and roll on a new o-ring. Push in the plug until it seats and you're good to go.
Aaron
1976 TR7 FHC (an ongoing project)
