Gas smell in SL today
 

While driving SL (1972 D-Jet) this morning, I noticed a strong gas smell. Had a look when I got home. Several leaks on fuel rail hoses. There were pools of gas in some of the casting cavities on the inlet manifold. Not too safe :(

Tightened everything up and double clamped a few of the rail connections. No more leaks, for now.

This has happened before, and I think the problem, is in using 5/16" SAE injector hose instead of the proper 7.5mm OE hose. Not sure what happens to the SAE hose (the one with the blue liner), but perhaps the wall material flows or otherwise looses resilience so that the clamps are no longer tight.

Recommend that any one changing injection hoses on D-Jet use the proper hose from the dealer along with OE clamps.

Thanks for passing that information along. I used 5/16' on my '73. Need to keep an eye on it.

Graham
you are correct and the resolve is as noted, this is one to "go to the dealer for"

I think I've read that one of the reasons that this system was not used for long was the tendency of the cars to catch on fire. And that's when they were new!

Most of the fires came from a blatant disregard to service the many rubber lines in the engine bay. The area gets hot and hoses decay. You have to look them over and as noted use correct hoses.

I had never heard of that. Or maybe I had just forgotten!

I once noticed that the hose that crosses over in front of the engine appeared to be charred. What I found, was that one of the HT leads ran very nearto the hose and perhaps was touching it. Apparently arcing had been taking place and a hole had almost burned all the way through that hose.

Now you mention fires. When I had the above problem, I mentioned it to an old MB mechanic - he said yes - they had seen that and there had been fires.

I just checked that hose yesterday - The HT wires are nearby, but there was no sign of arcing. I must remember to tie-wrap them out of the way. The problem occurred before I replaced the wires.

I posted about this before, at least on Benzworld
http://www.benzworld.org/forums/r-c107-sl-slc-class/1352733-fire-hazard.html#post2664376

fuel smell / leaks
 

Hi, Had fuel smell in my 75sl. Turned out to be fuel regulator putting out too much pressure at fuel rails thus producing leaks. Hope this helps.

Joe R.