fuel pump -

[dukey72]

Hi All,

 

I was the guy that had the car "complied" upon entry to Australia and had the fuel line issues previously (Knocked fuel pump and torn fuel line). Anyway, I took the car for a good run tonight and after it had warmed up, it seemed to be starved of fuel under load when I put the foot down. Didn't do this previously. I pulled over and had a look at the fuel pump and it was really warm to touch - borderline hot. Now I'm not sure if this is normal (never felt the fuel pump before because it has always worked previously) but that would seem to fit if the fuel was heating up in the pump and that affecting the delivery.

 

Is that (ab)normal? If it isn't normal, has the "mechanic" wired it up wrong and yet again, the 6 and I are a fireball waiting to happen?

 

Thanks in advance. Previous advice was great.

 

 

[AndrewP]

Another fellow Aussie! (where abouts by the way?)

 

I cant comment on the actual wiring of your pump, but from the wiring diagram, its pretty simple...switched +12VDC (from the ignition) and ground....go and stop.

I do know (I assume you have the original Lucas pump still?) that they suffer badly from vapour lock (where the pump gets too hot) as (if you believe some articles) the motor is a windscreen wiper motor (designed for stop/start) popped on the top of a pump..and of course gets hot running all the time. In the later versions they even wound the fuel lines around the motor in an attempt to cool the motor!...I cant see this working as Im sure all this did was heat the fuel even more!

 

Worth adding as well, the 'performance' of the pump suffers badly with bad wiring..they seems to like a strong 12 or more volts to keep them running at the correct pressure.

 

So..Id check the wiring first. A multimeter at the pump terminals and check the volts.

Secondly, see if this only happens on hot days (i.e is it better in the cooler evenings), this would almost definitely point to vapour locks, and so if this is the case, you may want to investigate the Bosch pump upgrade.

 

Someone may correct me if any of the above are wrong, but I believe most of these points are well documented, and being in a hot country (especially this time of year) heat problems are going to raise their heads!

 

Hope it helps

Edited February 5, 2010 by someone1975

[dukey72]

Hi - thanks for the reply - I am in Brizzy.

 

Could be "the Prince of Darkness" striking again. I'll put a voltmeter on it and see what's up. It wasn't too hot tonight and I only noticed it after the car had warmed up. It had not done this before (the car has been both here and NZ without issues previously).

 

 

I had someone tell me a Commodore fuel pump would be great instead of the Lucas........probably shouldn't even go there........

 

thanks for the advice. Mine's a 69 as well.

[stuart]

The cooling coil does actually work quite well (Think cooling coil on a fridge) A good dedicated heavy duty cable feed for the pump is a good idea (Preferably relay fed) and fit a heavy duty earth as well as the original is a very weedy cable and does get hot. If you are checking the voltage then use a 12V bulb with a couple of fly leads soldered to it rather than a voltmeter as Voltmeters may show 12 volts but they don't show you how much amp-age you have whereas a dim bulb will.

Stuart.

Edited February 5, 2010 by stuart