kishy's 1985 Country Squire

[gadget73]

Fan of the large receiver hitch, even if I don't actually use the full capability. More stout construction and getting a hitch to fit it is easier.

[kishy]

Fuel leak is originating from the area of the fuel pump hanger. I used brake cleaner to clean all the crap off the tank last night and there was fresh gasoline residue under it tonight.
Possibilities (cannot be further narrowed down until tank is drained and dropped):
-pinholes through the steel as happened with the 83,
-gasket leakage/bad seal
-line leakage (connectors/O-rings)
-tank defect at that location

Trying to track down just the gasket on its own is looking nearly impossible, so I may have to buy one of those obscenely overpriced lock rings to get it.
Update: I believe the gasket is E1VZ-9417-B (CG786), and can certainly be had online. I'll see if it can be had locally.
Based on past suspicions I do not think the leak is new. It has either worsened enough to get my attention more, or I'm just finally tuning in to it.

No formal diagnosis on the pump noise but I suspect it's voltage related, given the car idles very low and has a 1G. Bringing it ever so slightly off idle makes the pump go normal again.

[Rodentkiller]

Kishy check your fuel pump pressure below 32lbs kiss the pump good by. The fuel pump quit on the road in my CV had to call for a tow oh what fun day I had, I also had to call my Mom to my rescue.

[DerekTheGreat]

Curt is the best hitch you can buy, hands down. The company I work for supplies the pretreatment and the system is designed to work with the powder top coat. They'll resist rust the best. The one I put on my Colorado never rusted and the one on my K1500 hasn't either. I'm sure annual Krowning has something to do with that too.

[kishy]

Fuel pressure even after about an hour of continuous runtime (where a failing pump reveals itself best) is a very solid 39PSI, which sounds about dead nuts on with where it should be (IIRC 35-45 is spec). Not worried about the pump.

The Curt hitch does look to be a very decent piece and I'm glad I picked it up, though it wasn't inexpensive. Made in USA has a lot to do with that, I'm sure.

I successfully picked up 3 of the gaskets from a Ford dealer today, and have a lock ring plus gasket arriving at a parts store tomorrow. I also grabbed an extra 25L gas can since they're on sale. If I feel the motivation (currently, I don't) I may drop the tank tonight and figure out what is leaking and why. If it's just the gasket it's an easy fix.

[kishy]

Not worried about the pump.

Pump died while draining tank to drop it. Electric stuff checks out, pump is getting voltage, but pump is not pumping.
I was studying the effects of a restriction on the line and it died as a result. Important lesson: restricted flow kills pumps. Probably a good argument in favour of regular filter changes.
Other interesting observation: the pump sounds loudest pumping with no load (open line draining into gas can). The pump sounds quietest (which we would assume was healthiest) in the seconds before failure.
Obviously YMMV but that may be worth filing in the mental notes somewhere.

Part store should have my new Delphi pump tomorrow morning. The RockAuto wait is unacceptable in this case as the car is needed next weekend and I don't want to gamble on having the energy to finish the repair during the work week.

There is no more convenient time for a fuel pump to fail, really. This is a setback but not an inconvenience.

[gadget73]

I don't mean to laugh but the timing of those statements is funny. About the same tends to happen to me, as soon as I say something is working well it immediately proves me wrong.

[sly]

The irony... painful irony.

[kishy]

So, uhhhh...I jumped the gun on deciding that pump was bad. Let's rewind a bit.

I wanted to correct the fuel leak, but the tank was full.
I had disconnected the fuel line in the rear wheel well, and was jumping the fuel pump relay to drain the tank through that line into gas cans.
I had made it to approximately 45L drained and expected that I had a fair bit more to go still, which would necessitate finding another gas can, as I was on my second 25L can at that point.
It was at this point that I decided to check how the pump noise changed by squeezing the rubber line I was using to drain the tank.
After a period of several seconds holding the line very close to fully closed, the pump went silent and the fuel flow stopped.
I disconnected my jumper wire, tried again, checked power supply at the relay, all seemed good. No noise from the back of the car, pump must have died.



I called 3 different part stores, one ended up having Bosch #69133 in stock, for a lot of money. I wanted the car fixed today. I went and bought it.
Before leaving the store, I opened the box and found the bag had been cut open and all hardware except the pump itself was missing (the fuel line L, hose clamps, wire terminal hardware etc).
Counter guy looked and found he could order the Delphi pump for tomorrow morning, and it would be substantially cheaper, so we exchanged the Bosch for that and in doing so I got a refund of 80ish dollars.

I get back home, make the above reply.
Find that I have a message in a Telegram group chat I had mentioned this problem in, offering me a high flow Walbro with low usage for free...said sure, will gladly take that. Either way, would still need two pumps, since the 86 can no longer take the identical new pump I had bought (same as in wagon), as it isn't trustworthy. While friend was on his way, I went under the car and continued tank removal.

While doing that, I decided to check voltage at the connector above the tank. I found good battery voltage there. Further confirmation of bad pump.
I then, for whatever reason, put power directly on the connector above the tank from my booster pack, and noticed that the pump was making a subtle humming...not normal fuel pump noise, just a faint little hint of a noise.
I assumed from this that what had happened was the pump rotor had come separated from the motor shaft, so the motor still worked, but the pump couldn't pump. Oh well, still a bad pump.

Tank out, friend arrives. Pull the fuel pump hanger out. Successfully diagnose the leak - around the return line, on the mounting plate, there is a gap in the solder. Re-soldered that.
(note the dry area, where the fuel leak has washed away the oil coating)







Found the Walbro cannot be used, the way its pickup sock mounts makes it impossible to work with the rubber boot thing on this pump hanger.
Just because why not, I put power on the bad pump, and it spit gas at me...not something a pump with no functioning rotor would do.
Hooked it to a line with some fuel and found it works just as well as it always did, and its normal noise comes back as soon as there's fuel being picked up.

Turns out I had run the tank low enough that it was picking up air. The gauge didn't indicate it was empty, but this must have been because of the angle of things with the rear end in the air.

The pump was and is fine. The leak has been fixed. The car is back together. Lessons have been learned. My faith in the other identical pump has been restored. Hopefully the part store will refund the pump on-order without a restocking fee. If there will be a restocking fee (as it was special order), I'll just keep it. It wasn't horribly above RockAuto pricing for the same pump.

tl;dr hi, I am idiot.

[Tiggie]

You aren’t an idiot. An idiot would have trashed the good pump. You repeatedly tested your theory until it failed. That’s good science.

[87gtVIC]

The ups and downs of working on cars. I can only imagine what mechanics who do this daily go through.



You like those ramps...ramps in general over jacking up the car and placing it on stands. Seems handy and quick to set up, tear down after the job is done.

[kishy]

True, not an idiot...thank you lol.
I will find out shortly if I'm stuck with the new pump or not.

Yes, the plastic ramps are my preferred way to raise a car. I have two floor jacks and many stands but really try to use the ramps whenever possible. I feel like the (rare but very possible) risk of having a car fall on me is pretty much none using the ramps, and (while still rare) significantly higher when using jack stands. Zero risk of the ramps tipping over, and the weight is being distributed across a much wider contact area. The car is as stable as when it's sitting on the ground.

[kishy]

I was not stuck with the pump, nor stuck with a restocking fee, as it hadn't arrived yet...so it's very good I didn't actually need it or I'd have been livid and sad all at the same time. Full refund and all is right in the world again.

The car has continued to have a pretty wicked vibration primarily from the front right corner at highway speed. It is vehicle speed related, not engine speed. It existed on the old tires and wheels, and continued to exist on the new ones, which made me wonder exactly what it could have been. But finally I took it back to the tire place and had them re-balance them, and he found the front right was off by 0.75...took it on the highway and it's much smoother now. There is still some vibration that kind of runs through the whole car at higher speeds but it's nothing like it was.

Ordered a set of Gas-A-Justs for this. I really like how the 83 behaves on them and it has become apparent the wagon is going to be a car I drive a lot (but will be parking it for winter), so it's worth throwing nice stuff at it.

[jaywish]

You might want to check the wheel bearings for any play.

[mitymerc]

Wagons are fun to drive...