[Healeys] Fuel pumps (AGAIN!)

[Bob Spidell]

Not trying to reinvent the wheel, David, just get a fuel pump that 
lasts.  Others have had good service from points pumps like you, but I 
haven't.  I'm not doing anything unusual; if you get them installed and 
they don't leak and they run that's about all you can do--there's no 
trick or secret to installing them that I know of.  Mine just keep 
failing, with between a few hundred and up to 15K miles of service (this 
over about 140,000 miles I've put on my BJ8).   I will say I have driven 
through some serious downpours, so water entry into the switching 
compartment could be a problem, but some of the failures didn't get drowned.

The points can be problematic, else SU wouldn't have gone from:

1) no arc suppression

2) capacitor arc suppression

3) diode arc suppression

That is to say, SU wouldn't have gone to the expense and labor of 
installing capacitors and diodes if there wasn't some issue with 
reliability or longevity.  I tried all three, with results as noted.  
I've installed the out-of-the-box, rebuilt and adjusted them myself, 
installed SS switching mechanism, used capacitors, diodes, TVSes, 
transistors and installed SU electronic out-of-the box with predictable 
results.  I do recall your dad either writing or saying that they used 
to take the pumps out and service them--cleaning the points and 
adjusting the mechanism I presume--at 15K mile service when he worked at 
BMC (or was it BL, don't recall), so they aren't typically bulletproof 
forever.

Maybe I pissed the SU gods off somehow; though both my sets of SU carbs 
have been all but bulletproof, and the basic points-type in my BN2 has 
worked for a few hundred miles.

Bob

On 11/28/2018 9:50 AM, healeydoc at gmail.com wrote:
> I do not understand the problem with the SU pump that everyone feels 
> that they have to re invent the wheel. I have using the standard SU 
> pump with points in my Healey for almost 75000 miles and never had a 
> failure.
> We also have been installing the standard SU points pump here at the 
> shop on every car we do for over 40 years
> Everything from Healey’s, MG’s and Jaguar’s and had very few failures.
> David Nock
> healeydoc at sbcglobal.net
> 209 948 8767
> www.britishcarspecialists.com
>
> Help us have our Founder Norman Nock inducteed into the
> British Sportscar Hall of Fame, You can vote for your favorites
> by visiting the site at.
> www.britishsportscarhall.org
>
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