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[Healeys] Fuel Pumps (AGAIN!)

To: Healeys <healeys@autox.team.net>
Subject: [Healeys] Fuel Pumps (AGAIN!)
From: Bob Spidell <bspidell@comcast.net>
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2018 20:17:25 -0800
Delivered-to: mharc@autox.team.net
Delivered-to: healeys@autox.team.net
User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/60.3.1
I've been using fuel pumps with Dave DuBois' opto-electric mods for 
years.  Although Dave's work and response is impeccable I've not had 
consistent success with them, though everything in the design and 
implementation indicates they should be infallible.  I had 3 'in 
rotation;' one failed after less than a thousand miles this summer--I 
changed it out for another DD conversion on the side of the road--and 
that one has now failed.  It worked fine after installation for over 
5,000 miles but has sat in my shop for about 5 months, and failed to 
answer the call today.  I swapped in my last 'spare' and, so far it's 
working though I've only put about 10 miles on it.  Others have worked 
for over 10K miles before expiring.  Apparently, Dave has health issues 
so cannot address the problems with these pumps.

Although having committed to these solid state conversions I still have 
plenty of parts to assemble a couple points-driven pumps.  Problem is, I 
haven't had good luck with them either and, last I checked, the 
aftermarket points are of suspect quality (Dave concurred with this 
assessment).  I have studied all aspects of these pumps and done my best 
to assemble and adjust them, and they aren't abused in service--though 
some have suffered from getting, er, 'moist' in serious rainstorms--and 
I just don't understand it (I've 'fixed' a couple in motel rooms).  I 
know Kees and others have gotten years and thousands of mile off points 
they don't work reliably for me and, yes, I've used capacitors, 
transistors, diodes and TVSes for spark suppression, all with the same 
erratic longevity and reliability.  I do think, at over 5K miles/year on 
my BJ8 I probably work my car harder than most but still think I should 
be able to get more from these pumps.  I don't abuse them aside from 
driving my car fairly frequently and for one long trip of up to 5K miles 
every year.

Still, I will stick with SU pumps because, well, just because. They are 
the heartbeat of a Healey and the kind that run continuously are 
annoying.   But, I don't know where to go from here.  I hate to buy 
another as I probably have enough parts to assemble 4 or 5 with points 
(if I could find good quality points).  SC Parts was advertising an 
aftermarket substitute--diaphragm type--but it has weird fittings--I'm 
not going to cut into my original banjo-fitted pipes--and is for 
negative ground only.

Thanks for listening.

Bob

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