Fuel plumbing

Another productive week/weekend, and I still have most of Sunday to do more. The first job done was to get the front wiring completed, so now the front is all wrapped and terminated in a nine pin block. It was a bit of a headache, but thankfully I was able to find a 12 volt power supply and buzz things out as I went. Two of the lights didn't work, the first was a badly fitted bulb which just needed turning round and reseating. The other was a blown bulb. The things weren't even fitted and I have a blown bulb! Anyway, a quick Ebay later and I have a ten pack of Lucas bulbs. I suspect at least one other will have failed so I might as well have spares. 

Moving on to the rear I realised the loom still needs to include the fuel pump supply. And that's not got a permanent home yet. After many hours of head scratching and planning, I figured that bolting it to the fuel tank strap would be very effective;

I did wonder about putting the filter more accessible than the pump, but the pump looks prettier! The aluminium strap didn't fit tightly enough initially;

You can see the middle fixing is bent out of shape and not holding things tight enough. I added another layer of aluminium to all three fixings, and it sits much better. On the tank it looks spot on;

The fuel pipes here are mostly cut. There's a loop between the out of the filter and the in of the pump, then the pump outlet (green cap) should go off to the engine (more on that later). The filter inlet comes from underneath (the lower connector here);

The upper pipe is the return from the engine. The engine connection is made to two hard lines;

That run down the transmission tunnel. This photo shows a couple of issues I need to deal with. First, at the top edge the two pipes are in contact with the edge of the tank, so I need some sort of fixing to stop them from being worn through and also to keep them in place. I'll be 3D printing a bracket that then gets glued on to the tank, which the pipes will clip into. 

The other issue is the fuel and return pipes pointing downwards follow a very similar path, and again they'll wear each other away with constant movement. So again, another bracket is needed to clamp them in place. 

Now that the pump is in place, I can measure the wiring along the car and get it connected. 

However, there is one issue. The outlet of the pump is 12mm, and the whole fuel system is 8mm. No problem, I was able to find a brass reducer to get from 12mm to 8mm. But as I type this, I realised I have no way of connecting the two 12mm ends! Obviously it's got to be proper fuel hose as well. I've got the fuel clamps (once I find them, I've put them 'safe'), but I need maybe four inches of 12mm hose. I'll have a check on Ebay, alternatively the Newark kit car show is next weekend so I can hopefully get some there.