Pipe identification for a newbie...

Pipe identification for a newbie...

Author
Discussion

beckerman

Original Poster:

500 posts

289 months

Tuesday 6th April 2010
quotequote all
Hi all,

I've recently joined the Caterham fold with a 1700BDR and have finally managed to take it out over the last couple of days for a bit of a shakedown. smile

Having got home this evening, I noticed a stray piece of clear small-bore tubing dangling down under the car. With the bonnet off, it appears to be cable tied to the chassis, so is not totally loose, but the other end disappears along the gearbox up into the transmission tunnel towards the bulkhead. The pipe coming out of the washer bottle and into the bulkhead is present and correct so can anyone tell me what the loose one may be?

Any advice/thoughts gratefully received!

/beckerman.

Tango7

688 posts

231 months

Wednesday 7th April 2010
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Possibly from the battery if its mounted on the bulkhead or around the passenger footwell area

casbar

1,112 posts

220 months

Wednesday 7th April 2010
quotequote all
Yep, would say its probably the Banner battery breather, which fits into a whole in the top of the banner battery

beckerman

Original Poster:

500 posts

289 months

Wednesday 7th April 2010
quotequote all
Ah, so if it's a breather, I take it that one end should be free and that it's probably just slipped through the cable ties a little too far.

Interesting though, I've not heard of a battery breather before and from a quick google it seems as though it is fairly important to ensure it is connected.......

casbar

1,112 posts

220 months

Wednesday 7th April 2010
quotequote all
If its a Banner Battery, they sometimes boil, then you get white crap all over the car. So I would make sure the pipe if not connected is stuck in the side of the battery

beckerman

Original Poster:

500 posts

289 months

Wednesday 7th April 2010
quotequote all
Hmm. Well I've just had a look in daylight and it is a Banner battery but there is no obvious hole anywhere as far as I can see. having now also crawled under the car, the pipe isn't attached to anything at either end so I suppose it might be a relic from an earlier battery. Do they do sealed units?

Eugene7

741 posts

199 months

Thursday 8th April 2010
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I've had Banner batteries for years, and never bothered with the breather pipe...

Wouldn't worry too much if I were you!

Hope this helps biggrin

casbar

1,112 posts

220 months

Thursday 8th April 2010
quotequote all
Eugene7 said:
I've had Banner batteries for years, and never bothered with the breather pipe...

Wouldn't worry too much if I were you!

Hope this helps biggrin
Hmmm! I had a Banner in my xflow, which was located to the side and below the engine in the engine comp, and also didn't notice any issues, I guess if any crap came out, it went under the car.

But in my later car, the battery is mounted on the passenger footwell, and it did blow acid out of the breather hole, which I then had white stuff run into the passenger footwell and around the battery mounting tray. I then re-fitted the breather pipe and eventually fitted a Powervamp battery.


There is normally a little hole on one end of the battery near the posts, not sure if there are two and one has a blanking plug in it. The other option I guess would be to block both the holes up in the battery. Of course it might only be on older batterys and they might have done away with the breather holes now - don't know.

beckerman

Original Poster:

500 posts

289 months

Thursday 8th April 2010
quotequote all
Found it!

Pipe is now reattached and hopefully doing the job it was supposed to. I can honestly say that I have never heard of attaching a breather pipe before but from googling a bit it seems the sort of thing that would be sensible for all lead acid batteries. Strange.

Anyway, i've learnt something this week so thanks for all the help & apologies for being a) a numpty and b) apparently selectively blind wink

Now, who can help me troubleshoot a sticky throttle when the engine is warm? I've searched on blatchat and here and it seems to be relatively common but there are several causes. First obvious thing to do is make sure the pedal return spring is working I suppose - I take it that there should be one on a seven? I have two rather odd looking compression springs doing the job at the carb end.....

casbar

1,112 posts

220 months

Thursday 8th April 2010
quotequote all
If the car has twin webbers, the only springs are on the carbs. Make sure the throttle cable is free, ie lubricate it with duck oil. See if the sticking throttle is cured by manually pushing the throttle shut at the carbs, to see if the cable is sticking. Bit difficult to explain on a forum smile

Again, do a search in Tech talk, www.blatchat.com , this will have been covered before

Edited by casbar on Thursday 8th April 19:55