Cracked nuts

[dankurth]

I put a new gas shut off valve in my '29 Leatherback and coudn't get the fuel line nut on the valve side to tighten up. When I took it off I found the nut was cracked all the way through. I had a couple of spares on the shelf but when I looked them over, they had the same problem. An easy fix was to cut the line and install a short 3/8 brass flare nut, drilled slightly larger to fit the gas line. Cut an additional 1/4" out of the gas line to allow for the shoulder of a flare coupling and I was on the road again. All the parts came from Ace Hardware but any hardware store should have what you need.
If you take a look at the original nut you will see that there isn't much material being pressed against the valve flare and after all these years the nuts don't seem to be able to stand the pressure. If you're using an original fuel line it might be worth your time to take a look at it. There's no convenient time or place for a fuel leak.

[H. L. Chauvin]

This may not be a safe fuel fix for everyone to try, ...... that is, in everyone's case.

Could be incorrect, but it appears that if gas leaks here at the shut off, it could travel & trickle down between the floor boards, to a hot, rusty muffler below, when the engine is running, or ........ with engine not running, car parked, & the muffler is still hot.

[wrndln]

I appears that brass parts seem to crack as the metal ages. I to, have a cracked gas line nut on one of my inside fuel lines. It is split parallel to the gas line. Also, ammeter bezels also are almost always cracked - the 5 or 6 of mine are all crack on the back side, but still are OK on the visible side.
Rusty Nelson

[dankurth]

Originally Posted by H. L. Chauvin

This may not be a safe fuel fix for everyone to try, ...... that is, in everyone's case.

Could be incorrect, but it appears that if gas leaks here at the shut off, it could travel & trickle down between the floor boards, to a hot, rusty muffler below, when the engine is running, or ........ with engine not running, car parked, & the muffler is still hot.

The fuel leak was the reason for replacing the shut off valve. It wasn't leaking at the nut but after seeing the crack I didn't trust it any more. It would have been easier to order a new fuel line but I had promised to have the car in a Christmas parade and didn't have time to wait for a new one. The repair was inexpensive and worked just fine. Believe me, fuel leaks can be scary things. Many years ago, I thought I smelled gas after landing my Ercoupe. I felt under the header tank and a leak had developed, dripping right on my old vacuum tube radio. I could have put on quite a show when I was announcing my pattern positions. Scared me. A lot.

[H. L. Chauvin]

Dan,

We are sometimes scared to think back on some of our past Model A experiences.

If all of us would be brave & honest enough to post some of the less than safe Model A fixes we performed years ago, while in a jam, we declared insane.

This past Christmas I was in old Quebec City, Canada with my family, where we watched a TV program one night that I never saw before, entitled something like: "Things to never do at home."

Idiotic & hilarious .............. or hilarious & idiotic ....... difficult choice on how to describe it.

[Tom Wesenberg]

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Brass is tough to figure out. In the 80's I bought a new brass tube and flat plate from the hobby shop to make a funnel for filling oil in my motorcycle. I formed the flat plate into a cone and soldered it to the tube, then made a brass loop handle to solder onto the side of the funnel. I used it once to change the motorcycle oil, then hung it on the wall in my grainary. In the spring I went to use it and found cracks running up and down the tube. No heat was ever applied there and no water froze it, so why should it develope cracks in the tube?
It never cracks on the store shelf.