THE NEVER ENDING SAGA OF BB and WW
by Herb Adler

I'm lucky that today is only Thursday 13th. Just imagine what it would have been had it been Friday.

To start with I replaced my rear wheel cylinders, no great trauma. Whilst doing this I noticed oil dripping out of the axle to hub join. Not good, as this oil would drip into the brakes. So drain the diff, then spilt this join, whoa the whole axle comes out! Anyway fit new seals and reassemble. Still waiting for diff to fill.

Then I notice a drop of petrol from the banjo union on the fuel pump, which I had only recently rebuilt and reinstalled. Get a spanner and tighten the bottom union, which was a bit loose. Well if the bottom is loose what about the top? Apply spanner and turn, a geyser of fuel. Bugger!!, what happened? Maybe the union was very loose but somehow managed to seal. Try with fingers and yes it is loose. Finger tighten and then apply spanner. Whoops its loose again. Another bugger. This would indicate stripped threads in the housing. So out with the pump, envisioning helicoils and all. It's the outlet and the threads are bad. The inlet is much better.

Whilst cursing I had a thought, my ration for the month. Why replace the banjo fitting? Why not try standard fittings. I was lucky and had a 3/8" BSP Nipple in my junk box. Tried fitting it and it went in smoothly and tightened up. OK what I need is a 90 deg nipple to hose tail. Whilst driving to the local hose and fittings place I reviewed this idea and decided that a 3/8" to ¼" reducer, with a ¼" thread, 90deg, 3/8" hose tail would be better, because the reducer would allow me to orient the hose tail, by tightening the thread, without risking cracking the pump case, because the threads are tapered, and get tighter in the bore.

Bought the items. Because of the tapered threads, the reducer did tighten in the damaged threads.

I didn't tighten the pump bracket, until I had fitted the hose, as this allowed me to twist the pump till the orientation of the hose tail allowed me to fit the hose. When the hose was all nice and tight I oriented the hose tail and pump correctly, as shown.