Thought folks might be interested in my recent experience with an
aftermarket fuel pump on my TR-4. I had just got my rebuilt carbs
installed and was the happiest guy in the world (oh baby, car must have a
bigger engine now, goes faster!), but only for two miles, when the fuel
pump decided to pack it in (why did I buy this #$%*$# British Car!).
Turns out the aftermarket pump that the PO installed has a different
mounting system for the lever arm that extends inside the block. On the
stock pump (the one with the little priming lever on the base) the rod
the lever pivots on is inside the casting, so it is restrained at both
ends. On the aftermarket pump (the one all the suppliers sell as a
replacement since the original isn't made anymore), the rod is just
pressed through the casting, i.e. the ends of the rod are outside the
pump body. What happened to me was the rod decided it did not want to be
in the pump anymore, and fell out. The lever arm inside the block was no
longer attached, so it fell inside the block, along with the spring it
was attached to. So now I have to replace the pump (grumble), plus I have
to pull the pan and fish out the parts that fell inside the block
(grumble, grumble), all because the guy who designed this pump went to
the Lucas School of Fuel Pump Design (Grumble, Grumble, Grumble!).
The only good side to all this is that I found a used OEM type fuel pump
cheap, so I don't have to deal with this again after I fix it.
Anyway, I would suggest that folks who have the aftermarket type of pump on
their car might want to take steps to keep that rod from coming out or
replace the pump with an OEM style.
Oh, and did I mention I had to go buy a crow's foot wrench just to get
the pump off? Sometimes I wish I was shorter so I could fit in a M**ta
(I tried, folks, I tried!).
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