mechanical lift pump repairable?

[danda]

I pulled my old mechanical pump out because I had air intrusion and was thinking I would go electric. It was in working condition when removed about a year ago.

Now that my air intrusion issue is solved I've decided I will go mechanical with electric in parallel for priming only, eg hooked to IP high idle circuit, and as an emergency backup.

My fear with mechanical pumps is dumping fuel into the engine if the diaphragm fails. I've had this happen on another engine with a cheap lift pump. So I'm wary of the cheap pumps on amazon, etc.

My old pump is at least 24 years old and has been removed for over a year. So I really don't trust that diaphragm either.

I'm wondering if anyone has repaired/rebuilt one of these pumps and if there is a kit for it. Or has a recommendation for a quality pump.

I also found a NOS motorcraft pump on ebay that I'm considering, but I don't know how old it is either. Probably much newer than mine.

 

[XOLATEM]

If I was in a SHTF scenario and my mechanical pump stopped working and it was not easily disassembled like an old Carter pump I had on my 302 I would find another good pump that had the right bolt-up pattern and weld on an arm as close as I could get it to the right configuration so it would follow the cam eccentric and stroke the diaphram...

From checking out other pumps from time-to-time I found that the minimum you need is an inlet valve that will open under (vacuum) negative pressure, an outlet valve that will pop open under positive (the opposite of 'vacuum') pressure, a diaphram that will provide the pressure and a return spring that will fix it so the thing will operate...

Lets see if Summit or Jegs still has the rebuildable pump...

Yep https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-250024-1

If you can locate a decent material for the diaphram you can fix it...

Same here...https://www.jegs.com/i/Carter/180/M60882/10002/-1

Just an idea if you can't find anything else...YMMV....

 

[Jesus Freak]

I pulled my old mechanical pump out because I had air intrusion and was thinking I would go electric. It was in working condition when removed about a year ago.

Now that my air intrusion issue is solved I've decided I will go mechanical with electric in parallel for priming only, eg hooked to IP high idle circuit, and as an emergency backup.

My fear with mechanical pumps is dumping fuel into the engine if the diaphragm fails. I've had this happen on another engine with a cheap lift pump. So I'm wary of the cheap pumps on amazon, etc.

My old pump is at least 24 years old and has been removed for over a year. So I really don't trust that diaphragm either.

I'm wondering if anyone has repaired/rebuilt one of these pumps and if there is a kit for it. Or has a recommendation for a quality pump.

I also found a NOS motorcraft pump on ebay that I'm considering, but I don't know how old it is either. Probably much newer than mine.

I actually cut my last pump up "just to see what I could see" and there's no repairing the regular pump.

I'm pretty sure I saw the OEM motorcraft one you're talking about as well, and yeah, who knows how old it is or how it's been stored.

If that Jegs one that @XOLATEM has there is the correct pumping arm then that's the ticket. You could go "doomsday preper" on it and use old tires to repair it even.

But if you look up a thread called "another air intrusion thread, but just for fun" I propose an idea of putting your fuel tank on the roof of your truck with a headache rack and using gravity and not even worrying about a fuel pump.

 

[ROCK HARVEY]

Since the IDI lift pump has the same bolt pattern and gasket shape as a small block Chevy, is there any reason we couldn’t take a quality fuel pump for a carburated SBC and swap or modify the cam arm (if necessary)? I haven’t done any research on them, but there have to be good SBC fuel pumps out there.

 

[chickenpot]

Since the IDI lift pump has the same bolt pattern and gasket shape as a small block Chevy, is there any reason we couldn’t take a quality fuel pump for a carburated SBC and swap or modify the cam arm (if necessary)? I haven’t done any research on them, but there have to be good SBC fuel pumps out there.

i would consider switching back to mechanical pump if there was one that had serviceable valves and diaphragm

 

[The_Josh_Bear]

Since the IDI lift pump has the same bolt pattern and gasket shape as a small block Chevy, is there any reason we couldn’t take a quality fuel pump for a carburated SBC and swap or modify the cam arm (if necessary)? I haven’t done any research on them, but there have to be good SBC fuel pumps out there.

The above pump @XOLATEM suggested is exactly that. Has a few bad reviews, but 8psi max and 104gpm got me all happy. The only issue would be what the diaphragm was made of, if it can handle diesel. You'd think anything that can stand up to gasoline could handle diesel, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
Maybe there's a better version of the same concept. I'd be all over that, as I seem to have gotten the last good mechanical lift pump on planet earth and I'm nervous It'll break and I'll go through 10 more trying to find a good one...

 

[danda]

Lets see if Summit or Jegs still has the rebuildable pump...

Yep https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-250024-1

If you can locate a decent material for the diaphram you can fix it...

Same here...https://www.jegs.com/i/Carter/180/M60882/10002/-1

thx, I looked at both pumps and I don't see where it says that either of them are rebuildable. Am I missing something?

 

[Jesus Freak]

thx, I looked at both pumps and I don't see where it says that either of them are rebuildable. Am I missing something?

They are bolted together so that they can be taken apart and thus the diaphragm is replaceable.

 

[KansasIDI]

What pump does a 6.2/6.5 use? They are relatively similar to a SBC, wonder if their pumps are worth a hoot?

 

[IDIBRONCO]

What pump does a 6.2/6.5 use? They are relatively similar to a SBC, wonder if their pumps are worth a hoot?

They have a very short arm and use a round rod that is pushed by the cam to activate them. This is only accurate for GM trucks up to about 1986(?). In 1987(?) they switched to an inline, frame mounted, electric fuel pump. I'm not sure on the exact years. I did really like those. They made bleeding a new fuel filter EXTREMELY easy.

 

[KansasIDI]

In 1987(?) they switched to an inline, frame mounted, electric fuel pump. I'm not sure on the exact years. I did really like those. They made bleeding a new fuel filter EXTREMELY easy.

Oh? Would these be suitable for our IDIs?

 

[IDIBRONCO]

Oh? Would these be suitable for our IDIs?

Maybe. I can't answer that. I don't know any specs on them at all. It seems like they had attachment fittings similar to the ones on mechanical lift pumps to attach to the hard line on either side of them. It's been over 20 years since I've seen one.
Answer#2. At least they'd be better than a Facet!

 

[IDIBRONCO]

Maybe. I can't answer that. I don't know any specs on them at all. It seems like they had attachment fittings similar to the ones on mechanical lift pumps to attach to the hard line on either side of them. It's been over 20 years since I've seen one.
Answer#2. At least they'd be better than a Facet!

Now to add a little more. I would guess that they would work for stock or engines with mild upgrades. They may not work well for engines that require a lot of fuel. They may not have enough flow. The quality of these may also be getting worse so they may not be a viable alternative.

 

[tbowker]

At least they'd be better than a Facet!

Oh that hurts. I'm successfully running a facet. I won't show it this thread.

 

[ROCK HARVEY]

Oh that hurts. I'm successfully running a facet. I won't show it this thread.

I thought I had the only good one in the world lol.