Not Model A, but I thought you guys would get a kick out of this.

[KGBnut]

My daughter's Beetle broke down on the way home Friday night. It is only a bad fuel pump, but it is going to be a few days before the new one comes in.

To get her home Pop and I rigged up a system base on reliable Model A technology. Gravity never seems to fail. We could see people pointing and laughing at us the whole way...but we got her home. The gas can is one the Pop soldered a piece of tubing into some 50 or 60 years ago for the exact same purpose.

Ken

[redmodelt]

Is there a "LIKE" button!

[jm29henry]

Glad she home but that doesn't look to safe

[Bob C]

I had a fuel pump go bad on my VW bug and filled the crank case with gas.

Bob

[jm29henry]

Did that work?

[KGBnut]

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Originally Posted by jm29henry

Glad she home but that doesn't look to safe


Did that work?

As a matter of fact it did work, and worked rather well. The car ran fine coming home.

Also, it was probably not the least bit safe. I did a lot to secure things before driving it, but still the gas can was swinging like a pendulum. My biggest concern was it swinging and putting tension on the fuel line and snapping off the fitting on the can. I made sure to take corners very carefully. I only had to go about a mile and a half. If I had to go much further I wouldn't have done it.

Ken

[Cool Hand Lurker]

Looks like there is a bug in your system.

Why didn't you tow it home with your Model A ? You could have walked the mile and a half home to get the Model A, then drive back and hook up to the Bug with a rope. Now THAT would have gained a lot of looks!

[René W]

Originally Posted by Cool Hand Lurker

Looks like there is a bug in your system.

Why didn't you tow it home with your Model A ? You could have walked the mile and a half home to get the Model A, then drive back and hook up to the Bug with a rope. Now THAT would have gained a lot of looks!

That sure wouldt.........
Las summer i was in the French Alpes with the model A tudor,climbing a steep hill about halfway up there was a big tractor/trailer with a burnt clutch.
I told the driver i would tow him to the top.
We tied a rope between the tractor and the model a and i started pulling.....up we went.
At the top we untied the cars and the driver said"that was going very well,only at the end there was a lot of smoke coming from your car"
I looked inside the cab,,,,,,,,,damn,i forgot to release the handbrake......

[jm29henry]

I was wondering about Bobc idea

[Mitch//pa]

Originally Posted by jm29henry

I was wondering about Bobc idea

It's a very common occurence for them to dump into the crankcase. The diaphram ruptures and in it goes.. they also can pump fuel externally out the vent hole

[C26Pinelake]

I think I'd rather be safe and call AAA. Rather than save a few bucks and risk a fire or explosion. Wayne

[harleynut]

Thanks for posting

[Mitch//pa]

Nice job KGB.

[2manycars]

I have a similar can that I soldered a fitting on to about 30 or 40 years ago, and I still use it ocassionally.

[Synchro909]

Back in the 80's, we had a country general store about 2 1/2 hours north of Melbourne. One evening, a guy appeared at the door of our residence behind the shop asking for a mechanic. The town was too small for that but once he explained the problem, I volunteered to get him going. I used a couple of 2 litre plastic bottles, an octo strap and some plastic tubing to rig up something similar to the OP. The Octo strap held one of the bottles to his sun visor (he was driving an early 80's Toyota) and a piece of tube syphoned fuel down to the carburetor. The other piece of tube was so he could syphon more fuel out of the tank when the first bottle ran out. He gave me a look I won't forget when I sent him on his way home to Melbourne (2 1/2 hours away). He rang next morning to say he made the trip home OK and was amazed it worked. He admitted he thought I was mad the night before but he had decided since that there is a VERY fine line between madness and genius.
I sometimes wonder how many times he retold the story.

[Tom Wesenberg]

I've had to do the same thing a few times when the 10% ethanol crap gas took out the fuel pump. I now have a blank off plate on my fuel pump opening, and use an electric pump. As much as I like to stay all original, it's more important to have the car reliable, and as long as we get stuck on the road buying crap gas, I will continue to use a rotary pump with no rubber parts, and no chance to dump gas into the oil.

[KGBnut]

Originally Posted by Cool Hand Lurker

Why didn't you tow it home with your Model A ? You could have walked the mile and a half home to get the Model A, then drive back and hook up to the Bug with a rope. Now THAT would have gained a lot of looks!

Lurker, that's genius. I wish I had thought of that.

Actually, I considered towing it home, but there really weren't any decent anchor points under the front of the Beetle. I did tow it about twenty yards, just to get it out of the road. I was just wrapped around what looked like a sway bar. I wouldn't have gone any further for fear of bending something important.

Ken

[Mitch//pa]

The Bug has a tubular front axle.. you probably could go around that .. but u did fine its all good ...

[mhsprecher]

The accelerator cable on my VW Golf broke one time about ten miles from home. I got a rope and tied it to where the accelerator cable connected to the fuel injector. I ran the rope from under the hood and through the driver's side window. It got me home, but I certainly got some looks on that one, too.

[Gold Digger]

Wasn't fuel pump trouble but had carb trouble once on an old 57 ford. I took the carb off and beat the end of the gas line almost together and wired the line where it sprayed a small amount of fuel down the intake. didn't run worth a dime but made it about 3 1/2 miles to home.