1950s Fuel Pumps

[Coral58]

Is anyone else having to replace fuel pumps 6 times in 30 years? Some only lasting months.

[Jon S]

No

[Cadillac Jack 82]

Not months but the replacement one in my 59 gave out after a year.  Luckily O'Reilly has em for 60 bucks...but if it fails again shes getting the proper AC rebuilt one. 

[TJ Hopland]

Are they all failing in the same way?  And what way is it?

I assume the ones that lasted for months are fairly recent?

[Dave Ventresca]

had a napa pump for  10 years. 4.5 psi. no issues.Dave

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

I don't know what you fellas are using for fuel, but in all my 60 years of driving, I have only had to ever replace one fuel pump in any car, and that one was in my Ranchero I imported from Texas back in 1989.

Maybe it is an Ethanol thing?  Where the replacement diaphragms are OEM rubber and not neoprene.   I know plain rubber is no good with petrol, so the OEM ones must be some specially treated rubber.

Bruce.

[Cadillac Jack 82]

Definitely the quality of gas.  Here in AZ we're stuck with thinned out CA gas which is absolutely trash for older cars.  Although the 48 and 50 are lower compression they absolutely love the 91 which is more like 89 back East.  For the 59 I use an octane booster plus lead and 91 which makes her happy.  A little Marvels every once in a while, to help lubricate the diaphragms.

[dn010]

I feed mine ethanol free and I don't have any of the problems that I did when using regular 87 with up to 10% ethanol mixed in. The ethanol, especially if it sits for a while, is a real killer.

[TJ Hopland]

Over a 30 year span that was stated there are plenty of things that could have gone wrong.  Too old of old stock has always been a possible problem ethanol or not, ethanol just adds another variable.  What seems to be the most reported failure seems to be related to the valves and that isn't related to ethanol that is a combination of design and workmanship.  The most common design seems to have the valves as a little assembly that is then pressed / staked into the body and they fall out.     

[Big Fins]

I feed mine ethanol free and I don't have any of the problems that I did when using regular 87 with up to 10% ethanol mixed in. The ethanol, especially if it sits for a while, is a real killer.

We're lucky here in Florida, non-ethanol fuel is on about every street corner with the marine industry.

[Big Fins]

Over a 30 year span that was stated there are plenty of things that could have gone wrong.  Too old of old stock has always been a possible problem ethanol or not, ethanol just adds another variable.  What seems to be the most reported failure seems to be related to the valves and that isn't related to ethanol that is a combination of design and workmanship.  The most common design seems to have the valves as a little assembly that is then pressed / staked into the body and they fall out.     

That's the problem, with the non-serviceable pump body, unless you have the brake to seal it back up, you can't check to see if the valves were staked.

[TJ Hopland]

The examples of pumps I quickly looked up a few days ago that are readily available today appeared to be the type with all the screws.  I'm assuming that they are still that way because it allows for a modular design and different clocking for different applications.

I would assume its also possible or even likely that at some point in time there were also the basically non serviceable ones made for the application too.  Or perhaps one that OE was that way for a later model fits.   I did learn from working on some other AC pumps that just because you can take it apart doesn't mean its gonna be reasonable to service but at least you could inspect them. 

[Cadillac Jack 82]

Speaking of fuel pumps I just scored a clean 1950 one for Doris.  Fuel pump is good but the vacuum diaphragm is shot.  Who is the best source for those?

[Jay Friedman]

I usually send mine to AG Rebuilders in Mass. for rebuilding. 

[Michael Petti]

This forum has a number of posts about the poor quality of fuel pumps. I went through several in 2 driving seasons in a 60 CDV. My solution was to find an original A/C fuel pump core and have AG Rebuilders rebuild it. 3 seasons and no problems with it.

[Cadillac Jack 82]

In defense of the cheap overseas copies this last one seems to be okay.  Punched Shelley up to 105 today and she still wanted more.

[Big Fins]

That's just getting the cobwebs out of the exhaust. 

[PHIL WHYTE CLC 14192]

My Airtex pump on my 54 had the rubbers in the valves go hard and stopped working. The diaphragm was fine. I had a modern rebuild kit for a 1950s English Ford and the valves were the same. I put the new ones in and it worked well. Have swapped it for the AC one that Clay/Lexi gave me. I rebuilt that with ethanol resistant rubber parts. Phil

[Big Fins]

Phil, Do you have Ethanol laced fuel over there, or is it just the US that has to suffer?

[PHIL WHYTE CLC 14192]

Phil, Do you have Ethanol laced fuel over there, or is it just the US that has to suffer?

All our fuel has ethanol in it. Our only choices are 5% or 10%. It goes off in a matter of weeks it seems. When they stopped supplying leaded fuel people were saying how terrible it would be for old cars. To be honest I had no problems with it in my 54. But now they've added Ethanol it is awful. Without being too political Our governments have been trying to force us out of our cars for years here.