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MG Midget and Sprite General - replacing the float chamber gasket with a O ring

Well i totally trashed out the paper composite gasket between the float lid and the float chamber, and i had an interesting idea

Use a O ring instead of the gasket...i found 2

# 63 O ring is a tight fit dia wise and a bit fiddley but perfect thickiness

#123 O ring is a perfect fit dia wise but a bit thick....3/32 inch thick... But i think it will compress down when screwed into place

Anyway im hoping to fit these on monday, so will see if they work or not

Certianly better then paying ups or fed ex shipping on a 59 cent gasket.

Im guessing O rings are coded by a number that determines there actual size

Prop
Prop

Gasket?
There's supposed to be a gasket there?

Seriously, I cut a new one from gasket paper. Using an O ring would be fine, and a thicker one will increase (slightly) the volume of the float chamber (a good thing)
Go for it
Phil
Phil Burke

Prop,

If you use an O ring do check that the O ring material is suitable for long term exposure to petrol, not all materials are.
David Billington

I was going to say that too David. Certain types of rubber degrade rapidly in contact with petrol. Especially your dodgey petrol! ;-)

Malcolm
Malcolm Le Chevalier

Yeah ... I seriously considard just making some new gaskets and trevor even suggested a special craft circle cutter... But the o ring just seemed like a super simple, cheap, and time saver idea

According to the 15 year old pregnet girl working the plumbing and house electrical section of ace hardware store ... She assured me that the O ring is compatable with gasoline... Granted she didnt know what the differance was between shedual 40 and 60 pvc drain pipe was...but she can read the back of a package very easily

Hahaha.... Yeah... Perhaps i should just take the shipping screw over and purchase some gaskets

Prop
Prop

Prop.

"the 15 year old pregnet girl" ---- "assured me that the O ring is compatable with gasoline"

How exactly, did she get pregnant?
Lawrence Slater

The can read the fine print way better than 'some' of us...
Rick Bastedo

Prop,
read my comment in the previous thread, to run properly the fuel level in the float chamber needs to be at the right level. If you use an O ring instead of a gasket you will have to reset the float level as unless you do the fuel level in the float chamber will be too high. this will give you a rich mixture and you will spend more time on here telling us about it than the time it will take you to make two new gaskets.

Mike
Mike J Pearson

Hi Prop
A friend of mine runs an old open wheel racer and it's on straight methanol
He was having the same problems as what you are having
If he left it sitting for any more than a couple of weeks the fuel system turned to crap. It would grow this slimey stuff in the alloy tank, the pump would die and the SU's turned into clogged up sprinklers which is what happens with methanol and aluminium together
He got onto some additive for the fuel from an American firm called VP Racing. It's called upper engine lube for methanol fueled cars
You only use a tiny bit of it and it stops all that crud and white powder forming. He can leave the thing sitting for ages now without a sign of trouble
You would need to try a bit in your E10 fuel to see if it mixes ok or contact VP Racing and ask
Is it E10 or E15 you have there
Cheers Willy
William Revit

Prop - you're nuts :)
rachmacb

Nothing's much simpler than a paper gasket, and if properly made and fitted they're impenetrable. How many decades have they been used now? Do like I did when I overhauled my cooling system recently... just buy a sheet of gasket material and craft your own. It's dead simple.

Cheers,

-:G:-
Gryf Ketcherside

I do make my own gaskets

Its just this gasket is approximatly 2inch in diameter and the width is about 1/8 inch wide....not an easy gasket to make fiddly and requires intense atten to detail.

Making one let alone 2 just dosnt look like a lot of fun

Prop

Rach,

"Prop, you're nuts!"

You still had doubt before this thread?


Willy,

I have been using Sta-Bil http://sta-bil.com.au/ with good success. Also find fewer problems with the B/GT (S.U. HIF) than the Midget (S.U. HS) carburettors. Not sure why, except I seem to put more miles on the B/GT?

Regards,

Larry C.
Larry C '69 Midget

More miles = fresher gas.
That's one thing I do with my Midget, drive it a lot.
In fact State Farm Insurance just said they are bumping me off the low cost policy due to miles driven.
I think my agent may intervene, as he was the one who told me it would be OK to drive to Wisconsin and back this summer, 4,600 miles round trip.
Then I asked to have the coverage amount raised, they asked how many miles were on the car and then they gave me the news about having driven "too many miles".
Anyway, keeping the gas running through the system by driving it at least 4 or 5 times a week would be a good remedy and also supply one with that therapy that only a drive in a Midget can provide.
Smiles per mile man, it's all about the smile per mile!!
Rick Bastedo

So, to sum up what folks have said so far:

the proper gasket is so cheap, and easy to get (all of the usual suspects carry it), that there isn't a need for a substitute

when in a bind, one could either temporarily run without it, or make their own if they are careful with the scissors, or use a thin enough O ring as to not lift the float bowl cover above its original necessary height, and then install the proper gasket as soon as it arrives from the vendor

fuel stabilizer helps prevent fuel degradation, but driving more often is even better (double benefit for car health, and driver's health)

prop is nuts


... did I miss any of the key points from this thread?

Norm ":o)
Norm Kerr

Norm, I think you got most of it, but I think Rick's advice is sort of wasted on Prop. I mean how much can his car be driven? Maybe a total of 60 to 90 miles in the past few months and nothing before that for a couple of years. Seems like every time he takes it out he comes home with another problem which requires some exotic solution to fix. ;-)
B Young

I left it a few days

but

Prop

USE THE PAPER GASKET


hope I didn't deafen anyone

except Prop

SU carbs have been running safely and economically for a hundred and five (or six) years now using the correct paper gasket

My HIF carb uses a Viton rubber O ring underneath the body to seal the float chamber

But every time it comes off I have the devil's own job to reseat the O ring because the fuel makes them stretch (and the O ring lives in a machined recess in the bottom) and they need to be made to fit separately and allowed to shrink before refitting them

The moral of this story is that even when SU use O rings they are not as reliable as paper gaskets
Bill 1

Haha

Ive never been accused of walking in step with the main stream...

Bad news .... The O ring will not work except as a very short term fast fix, the O ring squishes ou around the edges when the cap is tighted down and you cant get a good EVEN torque on the 3 screws so it appears one screw is always loose

ABSOLUTLY GREAT NEWS.... TREVOR JESSE IS A MORTAL GOD OF THE MG UNIVERSE



Trevor suggested a craft cutter.. that was hard to find... But i did at a small fabric / craft store called jo anns

But this cutter makes perfect cuts from 1 inch to 8 inches in diameter....and it dosnt use templetes

I figure 2 more attempts and ill have a perfect made gasket

The cutter i got is by fiskars...im impressed

But most importantly....im NOT going to be paying $8.00 shipping and handleing from VB... Just for these 2 gaskets, costing .89 each and thats for the 5 to 7 day ground delivery, or i could even get them overnighted at $45

So my primary issue was not trying to reinvent the wheel but im NOT going to pay 8X in shipping what the price of the part cost...its just he princiaple.... They used to just put something luke that in an envolope .45 cent stamp and drop it in the mail...no more of that great practice..moss is still backordered
Prop

Prop

Go find a school geometry set. Take the compass and put in an exacto knife in place of the pencil. Do the outer cut first. It might take several passes but does work.
Kelvin Hawkins

Hey kevin

Great idea....and i thought about that but i never could find a cutter for my compass/devider

But no worries now... I got this little craft cutter to do the job now, its sweet

Prop

This thread was discussed between 24/09/2011 and 27/09/2011

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