Dripping a Flammable Mixture of Oil and Gas

I don't know exactly when it happened, but at some point the "few drips" on the floor of the garage started to grow. Under the hood and under the car I noticed some very wet areas on the frame. Also, Shelly commented when I came in from a drive that I smelled like gasoline. Time to investigate.  When the car was off there was no obvious oil leak, so I started the car up and looked around while it ran.  A braided metal hose coming out of the engine was dripping steadily at the point it connected to a very small rigid metal pipe that headed up through the bulkhead toward the dashboard. A quick check in the manual confirmed what I suspected - this is a feed from the engine to the oil pressure gauge. The leak was from the joint where the flexible hose coupled to the rigid. This looks like the same kind of hose I've used for plumbing water supplies to faucets in the house, but I decided to order from Moss just to make sure. $17 for the part, $10 for shipping, and $3 for an extra part I suspect I'll need later just to get the most out of the shipping since I pay the same up to $20.  Order by 3PM, part comes the next day before I get home from work because I'm lucky enough to live close to one of their two warehouses.

The new shiny metal oil line coming in from the right of the
picture, with the oily mess on the frame just below in the background.

After his unfortunate incident in the oil change the 12 year old son was not interested in helping, and his older brother was not around. Always willing to lend a hand though, my 10 year old daughter headed out to the garage with me. This job is a one wrench job (as long as it's adjustable), and once I got the tight compression fitting loosened, she was able to do most of the job. 15 minutes, no fuss, not much muss. Started the engine up, and no more leak. Whew.

Now on to the gas smell.  That could be anything, maybe even just the way things are supposed to be. Nah, I can see gas seeping through and then dripping from the flexible metal line between the carburetors (the same kind of line I just replaced above). Nice.  So as I drive I've been dripping a flammable mixture of oil and gas. Back to the catalog (OK, these were actually several weeks apart, they just combine well into one post). $30 for the part, $13 for shipping, and $20 for parts I suspect I'll need later just to get the most out of the shipping since I pay the same up to $50.

Old part on the left, new part on the right on my "workbench" (the
 floor mat in the garage). The "banjo" is at the top.

This one I tackle myself. No problem to take the old part off. The connector at one end is typical, but the other end has a "banjo" connection, a big, wide round ring that has a special hollow bolt fit through into the carburetor. There are supposed to be two fiber washers, one for each side of this big round ring. Unfortunately when I go to make that final connection with the new part, I can only find one. I blame the previous owner but figure it wasn't leaking there before so I might as well reassemble and order the part for later. I do so, and turn the ignition on to check for leaks once fuel pressure is built up.  There was a fast leak right where that washer was missing.  Maybe it was supposed to go on the other side of the ring. Disassemble, swap the washer to the other side, reassemble, retest. The leak was gone, but was replaced by a spurt of gas across the engine bay. Have you seen the Saturday Night Live skit where Julia Child cuts her hand? I figured I would need to wait to order a new washer.  Back to the catalog. $0.75 for the part, $19.25 in parts I might need later... you know the drill. It can be expensive saving money.

Later that day when our other car happened to be out of the garage, after ordering the parts of course, I found the missing washer that must have fallen and rolled 10 feet to hide where I wouldn't see it. I cleaned it up and put it in place, and both the leak and the spurt were gone. With the likelihood of spontaneous combustion now significantly reduced, I got the car back out on the road.