March 1st - Fuel and Oil Filter

After refitting the fuel filter, I tried using the hand operated fuel pump to pull the fuel through the system and fill the filter bowl. It didn't seem to matter how much I operated the pump, I couldn't get the fuel through.

Now the tank was almost empty, so I did wonder whether the fuel level was lower than the tank feed pipe, but my gut feeling that the problem lay in the filter. So the filter was removed again and I cut a new gasket for the main lip of the bowl. It was refitted again and this time, the pump worked to pull the fuel through to the carb. I couldn't run the engine however as the oil filter wasn't fitted.

Before I could refit the oil filter, there were a few jobs to do. The bolts on the oil filter clamps have always been tight, so I decided I'd use a tap and die and clean up the threads. Upon close inspection of the bolts, one didn't look right.

It turned out, that some numbty French squaddie long ago, had replaced one of the UNF bolts with the closest he could find, a metric M8 bolt! The threads must be fairly similar however and I was able to re-tap the correct thread without too much debris. A replacement UNF bolt was found in my old tobacco tins of nuts and bolts etc., and the new bolt screwed in firmly without play. The three other holes were tapped to clean the threads and the bolts screwed into a die for the same reason.

The oil filter mounting rings were quite tatty so they were repainted the day before and baked in the curing cabinet over night. Fastening the oil filter back on was a bit of a struggle to hold everything, get the bolts through the brackets and the oil filler pipe bracket, line them up with the holes and do it all without scratching the new decals. None of this was easy with the bottom oil pipe connected, but this was necessary due to the space limitations caused by the huge Hotchkiss alternator. Anyway, with everything connected up the engine was given a very short test run and all seemed well. Before running the engine any further, I bought five gallons of fresh fuel, and split it between the two Jeeps. The Jeep was started up again and driven out of the garage, turned around and parked up inside again. Having this Jeep, engine in to the garage, gives just a little more room between them to squeeze through.