fuel cut out switch

hi guys had trouble free motoring for few months now:amen:

but had a problem that i fixed but don't quite understand.
the other morning woke upto a bit of snow so decided to get the car warmed up left it running for about 10mins, after which time as i entered the engine spluttered and cut out, Obvious fuel problem, took 30mins to check stuff and the fuel pump was not priming/pumping on initial switch on, after some probing and head scratching with the haynes manual i decided to look at the fuel cut out switch and pressed it. then the car started fine

any ideas why the fuel pump would stop pumping? and what the fickin eck the fuel cut out switch is for, seems to be a passive device with no external influence so what does it do

any help greatly appreciated.

cheers
guys

thats the way diesel engines are stopped

when you switch off the engine it cuts an electrical supply to a maganet which drops down and cuts the fuel supply to the pump therfor depriving the engine fuel

I assume your talking about the inertia switch down behind the gearbox. Lots of cars with high pressure electric pumps have them to kill the pump if you have an accident, so you don't have lots of fuel pumping everywhere.
Why yours should have triggered in the morning I have no idea.

cheers for the insite on that one got a better understanding now. might just change it to be on the safe side cos there was power present at the time i tried to re-start the engine, could be on its last legs

It doe's three things, fuel cut off [manual] fuel cut off [forced smash] fuel cut off [if upside down] reson it might have cut out by itself could be if it was very cold during the night say, waxing fuel. . . . . .un sumtimes wen yer doors fall orft. . . . .