On 26 Mar 1997, David Stauffacher wrote:
> The Bosch pump is an excellent choice. A few TR6 owners in the UK still
> use the Lucas pump. Its easy to identify them as they are the ones
> stranded along side the road!!
Wrong. You identify Bosch pump owners in the manner they are left
behind on the motorway.
The Bosch pump do not have sufficient pressure to work properly with the
Lucas injection. The Bosch pump is designed for electronic injection,
where the design of the injectors are quite different. The Lucas system
needs a working pressure well above 100 PSI. The difference would only be
noticeable in situations of high fuel delivery (i.e. high power, high RPM).
The Lucas pump is far from being unreliable. But it fails if neglected.
It simply needs some preventive maintenance every N years (where N
depends on distance driven):
The brushes need to be checked/renewed (standard items as
used in Lucas fan motors).
The bearings like a drop of oil.
The shaft seal must be renewed.
The pump body end plates may need to be resurfaced to bring the running
clearances on par. The gear wheels and outer circumference of the
pump lasts forever.
The voltage drop in the wiring must be checked. The pump
needs a healty voltage, and uses around 50W. Installing a heavier
gauge supply wire and groud connection and operating from the
existing circuit via a relay is a very good idea, the original
wiring being on the thin side.
An extra cooling coil is not required when the pump is in proper
order. OK for very hot climates, or as an extra precaution.
Check that the pressure regulator is working and not gummed up.
I've had a Lucas pump for 8 years in a daily driver (2.5 PI), and had no
problems, summer nor winter. I do not have a cooling coil installed.
It was bought S/H, and had the typical hot running problems when
installed. I did an overhaul as detailed above, and there has been no
problem since. I changed the shaft seal and the brushes as a
matter of course 3 years ago.
A quick check for the state of the pump is to turn on the ignition. You
should be able to hear a healthy flow of petrol being returned to the
tank via the pressure regulator bypass.
Egil
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Email: egilk@sn.no Voice: +47 22523641, 92022780 Fax: +47 22525899
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