Electric Fuel Pump and 3 hours waiting for a trailer (or Sprint cells , Oregon and Pine trees dont m

[DB6]

A previous owner installed a Facet "cube " type pump up under the rear boot tray near the fuel tank, with new filter on the pump and a then a pressure regulator just before the line runs into the 40 DCOE Webers.

The pump is the correct output, pretty much the baby of their range.

Anyway, the live wire was run from a new seperate conector one line to Ignition, power line thru firewall along tranny tunnel then used a 1/4 inch hole that was already there (on side of tranny tunnel near top just before it meets the rear back rest/firewall, he grommeted , taped, strapped, did a really nice looking job.

Last Friday night running great from Seaside to Cannon Beach on the Coastal Highway (this is one of the most scenic drives anywhere, (you have to drive the Oregon Coast before you pop your clogs); when splutter , cough, splutter, DEAD,..rolled to side of road, flash lite showed blown fuse on the new fuel pump line,of course no fuses with me, but I did find a Bud can, beat it up with a brick and rolled a strip around the fuse, fired up, now at this point I should have headed home but feeling how clever I was at fixing the problem decide to push on into the nite, dumb idea.

I splutterd to a stop 2 miles on, now pitch black, my bud can fuse holder has melted;but with my teeth and keys I strip the wires make contact but no clicking from the pump.

Time to call a friend who is local and has one of the few trailer we can get this car one, (he races Miatas and has great ramps for low cars,BUT no bars on my cell phone, walk 3 miles, ( for me a Marathon) get cell, he comes right out, even tho he was getting ready to drive to the Utah Speed week on the Salt Flats, (you really do find out who your fiends are when you have a divorce or buy a 7),l( or in my case get divorced then buy a 7, which is still cheaper to maintain than my ex, does not call me an A-Hole and is prettier, I,m not bitter tho,lol,lol); anyway thanks to Dr Mark Stephanelli, (what's better than having a buddy who is a doctor and a Brit car fanatic with a 4 car garage and a lift nad drops everything to come and pick you up at 9.30 pm on a Friday night..

 

The Diagnosis:

the prior owner had left @ 15 inches of wire (don't ask me why) which got snagged on the Uni Joint where the prop shaft meets the dif and ripped the wire apart, the reason it worked for a while was as the prop shaft turned it allowed the wires to kiss now amd then, hence the few extra miles on the bud can fuse.

When I asked hiw why he used that hole he said, "well because it was already there".!, nice guy tho, and God know s we all do dumb thing in or lives.

 

By the way, are the Fcet Fule pumps always clicking, I believe they are but someone was saying they only click and pump till the pressure is built up, I think they click and pump all the time, right???

 

[Cherik]

nice story! The imagery of being stranded on a dark side road w/o bars on the cell is certainly a tantalizing one...

I'm gonna check the batteries on my flashlight.

 

Glad it worked out without too much reconstruction!

 

And you are correct, the piezo pumps can run all the time, but it also depends on the fueling system.

They usually maintain 2..3psi pressure, which is fine for Carb systems (2psi is plenty already), and

for EFI system they can be used as a low pressure pump to maintain a main tank / surge tank loop

from which the high pressure circuit takes it's feed

 

Cherik

 

[Al N.]

Mazda, can you lock this post...it looks like a dupe of the one in general....or perhaps DB can delete?

 

Just trying to keep the forum tidy (unlike my garage).

 

-A