fuel pump

[docgibbons]

we've all (or nearly all) had experience of this. there you are purring along, then all of a sudden you're not purring along. You pull the bonnet catch, get out, hit the fuel pump with a spanner, it goes tick-tick-tick-tick-tick, and off you go again. but there's always that worry one day it won't work.
i've had a restored (charles ware) saloon for two and a half years now, and round about this time a year ago it suddenly stopped shortly after leaving home. gave the pump a tap and hey presto. All's well again. Nearly a year on - about three weeks ago - the engine cut out again, and another tap on the pump did the trick. Today it happened again, and this time needed a bit more of a thump to get the pump ticking again. so does this indicate it's on the way out and needs replacing? Bad time of year to have it fail completely on a cold dark night.

[ManyMinors]

They don't last forever. You could try to take the contacts apart, clean them and refit but if you don't fancy taking a chance, simply buy a new one. They are £100 or so now? That isn't a fortune in the grand scale of things and you could always put the old one on ebay and get a few quid back

[philthehill]

or try club spares.

[shoebone]

Burlen sell a repair kit for 44 Quid, you could rebuild it yourself in less than an hour or take your time and spend an afternoon cleaning/getting to know/rebuilding your pump ..... much more satisfying and your pump is good for another 50 years. http://sucarb.co.uk/su-fuel-pumps-spare ... -1985.html

[myoldjalopy]

I doubt you will need the full repair kit, just the points, much cheaper. But try cleaning the existing points first.........

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

I doubt you will need the full repair kit, just the points, much cheaper. But try cleaning the existing points first.........

Exactly. It's the points that become high resistance and eventually wear out.

[GavinL]

My first step would be to clean the points - these can get become corroded over time increasing the resistance, or arcing can cause them to 'stick'. A quick clean between the points with a bit of very fine folded abrasive ( 600-800) might make all the difference.

[irmscher]

Buy a full repair kit and carry the spares with you in the car just in case

[jaekl]

Next time you should take the cover off and determine if the points are closed or open. If they're closed the most likely cause is dirty points. Open would point to a stiff or not properly adjusted diaphragm. On the other hand a hole in the diaphragm leads to constant, rapid ticking but not necessarily when cold. There is no need to replace the pump unless the coil has failed. You just need to be up to a little assembly work.

[docgibbons]

thanks for all the input. i'm away from home now until the new year, but will implement the advice upon return and report back.

[SteveClem]

We broke down recently at twilight, on a dangerous bit of road. All the signs of fuel pump failure. Turned out to be seriously degraded inside of the fuel pipe...it had turned to black mush. From the outside it looked fine. The poor pump couldn’t shift fuel through the muck.
New,ethanol resistant, fuel line and the pump is happy again.
Don’t ask me about the bl**dy RAC!

[docgibbons]

I'm finally able to take the car out again on a winter's night without worrying that the pump might pack up, but only after fitting a new one. I was put in touch with a fellow moggie owner not too far from me, who spent an hour or so working on it, but he eventually pronounced that the points and diaphragm were "basically knackered". He reckoned that the hit-it-with-a-spanner routine had a limited lifespan, so i finally decided to fork out for a replacement pump from ESM and replace it. And all is now well.

I had better luck with the home remedy treatment on my flasher unit, however, after the indicators started playing up a couple of weeks ago, and after a 15 minute clean up with a toothbrush and good old WD40, they're working fine now.

[myoldjalopy]

We broke down recently at twilight, on a dangerous bit of road. All the signs of fuel pump failure. Turned out to be seriously degraded inside of the fuel pipe...it had turned to black mush. From the outside it looked fine. The poor pump couldn’t shift fuel through the muck.
New,ethanol resistant, fuel line and the pump is happy again.
Don’t ask me about the bl**dy RAC!

Sorry Steve, but I do want to ask you about the RAC! Reason being, the last time I had to use them they were rubbish:
a) The woman in the call centre seemed unable to locate me, despite me giving accurate details. It seems she was incapable of reading a map and required a postcode to find me! (How would I know the b***** postcode when in the deep rural, miles from home?? )
b) After giving her the name of a pub a few miles from where I was said I was (as an alternative to the postcode), she said it would take about 2.5 - 3 hours for recovery to arrive. It took nearer 4 hours as she send the recovery to the wrong place!
Having said that, the recovery guy was great when he finally found me (but then he was nothing to do with RAC, just from an independent garage).

[SteveClem]

They gave us an estimated arrival time of 4-5 hours. We explained that we were in a dangerous situation, but that cut no ice. It was wet and freezing and their advice was to put on our hazard lights and leave the car. She couldn’t get her head around the fact that the car doesn’t have hazard lights!
Luckily the police and our friend with a trailer saved the day.
I rang the RAC back to cancel the call out, but the message didn’t seem to get through as 5 hours after our original call they rang us to say they would be a minimum of 2 more hours. I was not impressed. Will not be renewing our subscription, l see that Green Flag get better reviews than the RAC or the AA.

[myoldjalopy]

Thanks for the reply, Steve. Sounds like you had even worse customer service than I did!

[ampwhu]

i agree with green flag. used to be with RAC for about 15 years but they offered no loyalty and standards began to slip. a bit like virgin media with me currently. one foul chop and they are gone!

only used green flag the once, but they were there in 45 mins and got me going. I use RH for the classics though and in 25 years, have only used them the once. they were excellent (well the local garage was) but customer service was exceptional.

[SteveClem]

Thinking back, I should have been able to sort it out. But I got a bit of a brain fart because of the weather and the location. Hindsight is wonderful.

[kevin s]

In case We break down I've bought an orange flashing beacon which plugs in the cigarette lighter and sticks to roof with a magnet, led ones don't even use much electricity.

[docgibbons]

good idea. where did you get it? i was thinking of getting some hazard warning lights fitted at charles ware, costs around £90 i think.

[philthehill]

There are plenty of various inexpensive types - magnetic/plug into to socket etc on 'e' bay.