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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - How long with no fuel pump?

How long would an engine run just on the fuel in the float chamber of a HIF44 (I assume that a carb cannot draw on any fuel in the fuel lines)?

I'm thinking of fitting a hidden fuel pump 'kill switch' as an anti-theft device but wondered how far anyone would get before a lack of fuel stopped them.
Chris H (1970 Midget 1275)

Supposing you do 8 miles per litre (= about 36mpg)
I don't know the HIF44 capacity, but suppose it might be perhaps 50cc. Say 1/20 of a litre.
So 1/20 of 8 miles = 0.4 miles

As the fuel consumption won't be as good as that when started from cold and "driven like it was stolen" it presumably wouldn't get further than 2 or 3 hundred yards at most before it began spluttering to a halt.

You could consider adding a hidden earthing switch to the coil LT which would prevent it starting at all.
Guy W

I used to have a hidden switch. On twin HS2s I used to get about 300 yards!
Dave O'Neill2

I have one on my HIF44 equipped 1275 for exactly the purpose you describe. Guy is spot on - less than half a mile, maybe even a third.
Can be embarrassing when you forget to switch on again after 'immobilising'.



You will... you will.
Steve Clark

I think the point of a fuel pump kill switch is so that the car starts, gets out of the driveway and onto the road, then cuts out conspicuously in public.
Growler

I had a midget stolen once many years ago. It had one of those switches as does my currant Sprite. They got about 1/4 mile before they had to push it off to the side of the road so that they could steal another one. I had washed the car that day so the police had a great time getting not just finger prints but whole palm prints. They told me that suspected who to go after and they were right since I saw the owner of the other Midget driving his car two days later.

And, yes, I have forgotten to turn it on.
Martin Washington

On duel hs2 stock engine no heavy foot I had a su pump go down and got about 1/4 mile on level ground

What I want to do is hook up a relay and a on/on switch so a hidden switch has to be held down untill the engine starts otherwise the fuel pump wont activate

My thought on this is car jacking or theft from the shop...

if car jacked at a stop light... turn off the car as im getting out, tell them it needs gas as the gauge dosnt work... watch the car drive off ... then start walking ....im sure by that time the idiot will have left the car ... get un fire it up fly past and fly the bird and spit in his face...piss in a cup before hand and give him a good toss....hahaha

I have a hidden switch that kills the car and hard to trace so I activate it any time im at the store....enough time im sure someone would figure it out... but im rarly in a store longer then 15 minutes....sooooooo, yeah know

.
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

We have pump kill switches on all our cars, they are very effective. Most amusing incident was when I left my B at the local garage for its test, I later received a call to come and take the #$%@$%!! thing away. In trying to work out the switches for lights etc they'd ended up turning everything off including the kill switch. Spent half an hour on it and couldn't work out why the car wouldn't go ... I arrived, flicked on the switch and started it up. Sheepish wasn't the word!
Paul Walbran

I had a kill switch on an MGB based kit a few years ago, I'm not a morning person and I made myself look an ar*e on a regular basis, jump in, fire it up and splutter to a halt 300 yds later.

When the switch failed, it parked me up on a dual carriageway !

In the end I bought an Autolok - ugly yellow metal tube thing that connects the handbrake to the gear lever, obvious to all - most importantly to me - lol

http://www.autolok.co.uk/Pages/Aoriginal.htm

Malc
Malc Gilliver

Malc,

wbat keeps a thief from just un-screwing the shifter knob off the stick shift

Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

a metal ring with a grub screw is permanently fitted to the gear lever then the Autoloc wraps around the fixed metal ring encompassing it so that the gear lever is held securely in the device (depending on how well it's fitted over the handbrake lever)

lever = "levver"
Nigel Atkins

Thanks Nigel I'd forgotten the ring thing, better go look for it !

I take the view, if they want to steal it, they will.

All I can do is slow them down.

The attraction for me of the autolok thing, is I can leave the roof down and the autolok stops the retards leaning in and putting the car in neutral and taking the handbrake off - "for a laugh"'.

Just adding a dis-car-nect for the smarter thieves.
Malc Gilliver

Gez malc,

What kind of niebors and shopping centers do you have and trade with, thats just a sick thought...

I cant nor do I want to imagine a run away non-manned car, let alone to be set free intentionally

Thats just a whole new low level of human filth, to be disposed of as rapidly as possible

Gez, thanks for that image

Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

This thread was discussed between 23/09/2013 and 28/09/2013

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