No mine aint broke, yet. I was at my parents yesterday when my dad showed me a couple of hand pumps he made for his antique sprint cars. The pumps are about the size of a soda can and one model fits on the firewall while the other bolts on the side of the sprint car. They are billet aluminium. The driver gives it a few pumps each lap while on the straight away.

This got me thinking about an emergency back up for my carburated Defender. My fuel pump gives about 5-7psi. Since I can probably have one for free I was thinking about mounting one in the firewall and running a line to the fuel tank to pressurize it in the event my fuel pump goes tits up in the middle of nowhere. It wouldnt take much work and may get me home in a pinch if needed. Just an idea.

It wouldnt take much work and may get me home in a pinch if needed. Just an idea.

I think it's a good idea. Especially when you consider where you like to hang out and how much of a PITA it'd be if you couldn't at least limp home.

Do it and write it up as some tech...I'll bet there's more than one carburetted LR out there that could use the idea.

I always carry a spare fuel pump. Only in the D-90 (which requires dropping the tank) do I not bother.

Why not keep a spare electrical one with you? They are really easy to access on a carbed V8

I learned the hard way about carrying a spare pump. Years ago while driving on a gravel beach in my old Series 2a I had a rock come up and break the fuel pump sediment bowl. After much fooling around and worrying about the tide coming in, I got a gallon jug of milk out of the cooler, poured out the milk and filled it up with petrol. I stuck one end of a spare piece of fuel line in the jug and ran the other end down thru the spare tire-mounting bolthole on the bonnet to the carb. With the jug nestled in the spare I was able to get the truck back to camp and later off the beach.

I think I'm gonna give it a shot. It could also be used on other vehicles ina pinch. I hit my dad up for one in the morning. I will keep you posted with pics.

OK, it's my turn to argue the benefits of reinventing the wheel.

You guys are aware that the series fuel pumps had a priming feature whereby the operator could manually pump the diaphragm (Where's Merv when we need him?) to prime the system...

PT

The hand primer on the series vehicles is great! My old series spends a lot of time in the barn and there is not a lot of battery left after sitting for a few months. I prime it til the carb is full and then it usually only takes a couple of spins before she fires off.