[Healeys] Fuel pumps (AGAIN!)

Sun Dec 2 08:20:16 MST 2018

No, I do not recall. It was a friend's car & about 10 years ago. I was not involved with the application which was probably done about 10 years before the problem manifested itself.Gary

-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Spidell <bspidell at comcast.net>
To: healeys <healeys at autox.team.net>
Sent: Sat, Dec 1, 2018 1:03 pm
Subject: Re: [Healeys] Fuel pumps (AGAIN!)

 Any idea what brand sealant was used?  The BH product has very specific application instructions involving a cleaner and an etching compound before the sealant is applied.  Like any 'paint,' the job is 90% preparation.  IIRC, both of my tanks were new or near-new when we applied the sealant.
  On 12/1/2018 7:01 AM, warthodson at aol.com wrote:

 Another sloshing horror story. We were 600 mikes from home & in the Rocky Mountains. A friend's 3000 had been running fine until one day in the mountains. It began to run fine for about 15-20 minutes, then slowly die. A few minutes later it would restart & run fine for 15-20 minutes & die again. It repeated this pattern over & over. Of course we checked adjusted &/or replaced everything we could. The problem turned out to be the sloshing sealer that had separated in a large sheet from the bottom of the tank. With  the pump running the sheet would be sucked up to the pickup & the pump was being starved for fuel. When the engine died & the ignition was shut off the sheet of sealant would slowly sink back down to the bottom of the tank & the pump could again deliver fuel until the sheet was again drawn up to the pick up.  Gary Hodson 

 -----Original Message-----
 From: Bob Spidell <bspidell at comcast.net>
 To: healeys <healeys at autox.team.net>
 Sent: Fri, Nov 30, 2018 10:47 pm
 Subject: Re: [Healeys] Fuel pumps (AGAIN!)

   Moah DATA!  Yeah! Definitely makes sense.  Both my Healeys have had their tanks sloshed with Bill Hirsch sealer (I heard Bill Hirsch died recently, BTW).  The BJ8's tank was done at least 20 years ago, the BN2's more recently.  I inspect them occasionally and have seen no evidence of any fragments of the sealer either coming out of the feed pipe or in the pumps when I pull them apart.  Also, when the last pump stopped and I fitted my last spare pump it started pumping enthusiastically--and I drove it for 10 or so miles--so if the pickup tube in the tank is plugged I wouldn't expect that, but I'll have a look inside the tanks. I've reported it before, but when restoring the BN2 we bought a used tank.  We had an issues with an extremely erratic pump: no pumping, heavy thrashing (like fibrillation you get when the tank runs dry or you  have an inlet leak) and occasionally, normal pumping.  We blew out the lines, tried several needle valves and Grose jets but to no avail.  Finally, my dad had a hunch and cut the pickup tube out of the tank.  Sure enough, there was a lot of corrosion and a pinhole leak in the tube near where it exited the tank.  Dad speculated that the flux used to solder the tube in the tank was corrosive and not cleaned off correctly (well, it was a 40-year-old tank at the time).  Something to put in the diagnostics database. Bob
   On 11/28/2018 8:26 PM, Michael Salter wrote:

     This discussion about fuel pumps has revived something from the old grey matter ... To those mentioning repeated failures one problem that will cause premature failure is restrictions in the supply to the pump. The way these pumps work is that the spring in the pump provides the pressure. As the pressure on the output side of the pump decreases the diaphragm moves down to a point where the points close, that energizes the coil to pull the armature up against the spring pressure to the point where the points "flip" and open to stop the current flow through the coil. HOWEVER if there is a restriction in the fuel line feeding the pump the low pressure at the pump inlet can create a partial vacuum which will prevent the armature from rising fully and thus the points from "flipping" . When this happens the coil remains energized and "cooks" in a short time thus ruining the pump. I discovered this while trying to resolve a delivery problem in a car that had had the tank "sloshed". The sloshing compound had coated the gauze filter  inside the tank severly restricting the flow.  The test was to put an analogue ammeter on the pump electrical supply which showed the prolonged current flow to the pump. 
  M  
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