Petrol Pump

Keith Clements · Post by **Keith Clements** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 9:48 am

Amy used the Jupiter as a bridal car last weekend and did the 300 mile trip to Exeter with the only problem being the car stalled a couple of miles from her destination. The car restarted; but next morning it stopped again on the way to the church. It was lack of fuel; so the spare can was discharged into the tank. The car restarted but stopped again after a couple of hundred yards. Distressed Amy, phoned Dad who was on his way to Twickenham, for Calcutta Cup match. The bride's brother arrived to assist Amy who was most dissappointed the Jup failed a mile from the church. Murphy's Law .... The bride made it in alternative transport. Investigation continued after the service and before reception. Quite surreal seeing well dressed bodies under the Jup! Petrol would sometimes squirt out of the disconnected pipe to the carb; usually just once.
Anyway investigation continued after the car returned, thanks to the excellent recovery service arranged through Footman James. Normally Amy would have persevered; but she had a stinking cold. Changing the pump and blowing out the pipes is not a very clean job.

Top of the suspect list was a blocked inlet pipe. the filter bowl was unscrewed and petrol flowed. The pump filter was taken out. Electrical feed and earth were checked. Points were cleaned. Still the pump just ticked once and stopped.

The battery was left on charge and the following day the pump seemed to work. Investigation continues as it was not a dead battery that caused the problem. This makes good reading. http://www.rroc.org.au/library/sfc138_over4.html

Keith Clements · Post by **Keith Clements** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 1:01 pm

As I said, the points were taken out and cleaned. After much discussion with Leo Bolter, see JowettGallery for set up of pump https://jowettnet/forum/download/file.p ... &mode=view

Post by **Forumadmin** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 8:51 pm

I assume the SU pump is not upset by change of polarity; as I changed the SA over 20 years ago. I guess the capacitor could be polarised; although it looks like a ceramic, so should not be affected.

PAUL BEAUMONT · Post by **PAUL BEAUMONT** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:26 pm

Have occasionally seen repair kits including points, for sale on Ebay, so somewhere they must exist!

Keith Clements · Post by **Keith Clements** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 11:47 pm

Original pump of course. None of this new fangled rubbish!

Tony Fearn · Post by **Tony Fearn** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 1:38 am

I took Harry Brierley's Jupiter down from his home in Cambridge to the National Rally at Colchester some years ago, and experienced the same problem. It wasn't very nice stopping and starting down those rather narrow busy twisty roads.

I seem to remember that Harry wrote something about his problem with the fuel pump in the 'Jowetteer', - was it due to bits of the proprietary sealant from the tank blocking the pipes? I know he burnt his hands badly whilst trying to sort the problem with an ?aluminium rod in down the filler pipe. Perhaps one of our Archivists will be able to help on this one.

There again, it might have nothing to do with sealant.

Tony.

PAUL BEAUMONT · Post by **PAUL BEAUMONT** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 10:21 pm

If the sealant happened to be Hylomar then the story could be different. Absolutely wonderful stuff until you get it near petrol then it swells and causes all sorts of problems. Been there - got the Tee shirt!"

Mike Allfrey · Post by **Mike Allfrey** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 8:56 am

G'dday from the Sunny South!

My most successful way of dealing with erratic SU electric pumps is th throw them as far away as possible (we have plenty of space for that in Oz) and visit the Holden Vintage & Classic Website and order a new pump. the new pump usually arrives here within a week. Probably better service than you get oop there.

Morris 8 vans (Series E) taught me this philosophy during my apprenticeship. The SU is an excellent pump while it works, but once it plays up - not at all easy to fix.

Shout the Jupe a new pump - it has well and truly earned it!

Negative earth pumps have black sealing tape.
Positive earth pumps have red sealing tape.

They are polarity sensitive, and Holdens can supply both.

Incidentally, I have been finding dark brown fibrous looking matter in my Jupiter pump's inlet filter. It needs cleaning out frequently.

A friend has an Aston Martin DB-4 and he has found severe clogging at the inlet filters of both SU pumps. All of this since the advent of unleaded petrol too.

Regards to all,

Mike A.

Post by **Forumadmin** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 5:50 pm

Now that polarity thing is very interesting. From memory I do not think I changed the pump when I changed polarity at least 17 years ago. Anyway the thing seems to be working again. Just needed some attention. I did have problems 25 years ago and that was the petrol filler pipe breaking up and partially clogging the inlet. Meant I ran out of steam up hills when on full throttle. Took me years to find the problem!

Post by **Forumadmin** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:48 am

I quite expect it to fail; after all it has been on the car since the previous pump was hit by a rock on the Le Jog 15 years ago. The replacement pump was second hand then; as it was the SC's pump.

Spares available from
http://www.burlen.co.uk/sidelinkSearch. ... LinkID=115#
complete pumps
http://www.burlen.co.uk/sidelinkSearch. ... eLinkID=67
but not sure which one is suitable for Jup

chapman · Post by **chapman** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 4:46 pm

Check that the piece of flexible pipe to the pump has not delaminated
We had this problem on a Le Mans trip
Disconnect and try a temporary piece of clear plastic pipe you will see bits of brown rubber moving with the petrol flow

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Keiths petrol pump problem