Today I rebuilt my original AC fuel pump. I used a kit I bought from TRF
about 2 years ago. Everything went smoothly and boy does the pump ever
look great when it is all polished up!
Unfortunately there was a rather major flaw with the diaphragm the kit
contained. It turns out that the diaphragm rod which engages the
pivoting arm in the bottom of the pump is mounted on the wrong side of
the diaphragm! Those of you who have done this job may recall that the
diaphragm has metal plates on either side of it. One plate is a larger
diameter than the other. The large one on my original diaphragm was on
the top side. The smaller one was on the bottom side which is the side
to which the rod is attached. The smaller diameter plate has a lip on it
which is designed to retain the diaphragm spring. The larger plate
(which is on the bottom of my _new_ diaphragm) has a lip on it also but
it is a much larger diamete than the spring.
I thought this would be fine since the spring is compressed somewhat
during operation so I put it all together with the spring on the larger
plate (no option here since the rod dictates which way is up on the
diaphragm).
Sure enough I start the car and there is a really strange noise coming
from the fuel pump! I am fairly certain it is the spring sliding around
on the big plate. I will confirm this tomorrow when I replace the new
diaphragm with the old one to see if the noise goes away. If so I plan
on taking this up with TRF and hopefully they will send a new diaphragm
fast! Anyone else experience this problem with fuel pump kits from TRF?
As an aside, you may recall a recent post I made concerning the hood
release cable I bought from TRF being put together 90 degrees out of
alignment. I am getting some doubts about TRF's quality control after
this fuel pump diaphragm problem. I think they need to do their homework
a little better.
Peter Zaborski
76 TR6 (CF58310 UO)
Calgary AB Canada
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