Short fuel pump only works when dry?

[BaronYoungman]

The tolerances are very tight on the pump parts. Do you have the arrow on the bottom plate lined up under the inlet valve? This is where the factory set it and if the pump has a ever so slight twist to it this might give you the microns clearance you need to make it run. Bob

[Mollox]

I’m 97% sure it’s a different issue this time. Every time I put my multimeter probes on the pump it would spin. Was baffling at first but didn’t take long to realise pressing the brown terminal made it work - I reckon one of my soldered joints has cracked. I think this pump might have been the first thing I’ve soldered in my life, so it wouldn’t surprise me at all. Can’t wait to take the pump off the car YET AGAIN in the morning! Very tempted to switch to a modern pump in the short term. Any recommendations?

[Mollox]

I don’t like threads without conclusions…and I think we have one to this particular issue. Obviously there will be many more ahead.

I took the pump off, took it apart, found the broken solder, re-soldered, put it all back together and back onto the car yesterday (yet again). The pump span fine and consistently but couldn’t get any fuel from it. By this point it was dark and I was utterly dejected. These things really are a rollercoaster.

Woke up this morning with renewed optimism and set about methodically troubleshooting. I started to think the pump was starved of fuel and was just about to hook up an external jug when I thought I’d try removing the “gas” tank cap.  As soon as I did all was good again and it was running in no time. I guess I’ll be looking at the tank ventilation tomorrow…

So, dad got to drive his car for the first time in 8 years - all of 20m to my ‘wash bay’. It even had brakes, at least to some degree - and I gave it its first wash after at least 10 years of sitting under a tree in the hot Spanish sun. I haven’t even put a sponge to it yet, just lots of snow foam and a pressure wash to get all the thick dirt off. It surprised us both how good it looks. Obviously needs bodywork and a complete respray, but from 15 feet and at the right angle looks a lot better than it really is and he seems very happy.


Thank you all for the tips and help - it was all useful.

I tried uploading some pics just now and it lost my whole post. Will try and add some after.

Onto to the next issue!

[mdsalemi]

Before I changed my fuel tank, back in 2010 or so, I had consistent problems with runability and the gas cap. I’m not quite sure what the problem was. But the new gas tank, cleaning all the lines and filters and related solved the problem once and for all. The mechanic who did the work said that the fine screens and filters were getting consistently clogged with fine rust particles from the nearly 50-year-old tank at the time. He said you can try all the solutions you want, but the real solution would be change the tank.

In my case, he was right. Changed the tank and all my problems went away. Shortly thereafter, I found a wiring problem to the fuel pump and once that was solved one more thing I did was add the Pertronix ignition system to the distributor. That was back in 2011 and has been running like a top ever since.