Puttering Around

Some more puttering around, only this time on the 308.

A few weeks ago, I took the 308 for a test drive after replacing the plug extenders.  Not a long trip, but at the bottom of our hill, the car just stopped.  It wouldn't restart and after a couple of tries, I realized that I couldn't hear the electric fuel pump.  I let the car roll backwards to a safe place off the road.  Then I pulled off the cover over the fuse panel area.  Swapped fuses, no change.  Moved the wire to the fuel pump to a known good fuse (wipers which worked when turned on), no change.  Played around some more, but nothing.  Finally I moved back to the driver's seat and just before pulling out the cell to call AAA, I turned on the key again.  The ticking of the fuel pump was heard.  So I quickly started the car and drove the half mile home before it decided to die again.

I put the car on the lift and shook and tapped everything in sight near the fuel pump.  It was like a Timex, took a licking and kept on ticking.  I hate intermittent problems!

New Facet fuel pumps like the original are still available at a reasonable price (~$90), so I ordered one.  I was not at all convinced that it was a fuel pump issue, but more likely a loose connection somewhere.  However, my wife would not ride in the car until I 'fixed' the problem.

So today was the day to change pump.  The fuel level was pretty low (the red light was coming on going downhill), so I figured that there wouldn't a lot of fuel to drain.  After looking at the pump and filter, it was obvious that the filter had to be removed to get at the bolt on one side of the pump.  The other thing was that I could remove the banjo fitting on the filter and then unscrew that hose from the pump.  That way I wouldn't have to remove the rubber hose and possibly ruining it.  Once I undid the banjo fitting, gas started pouring into the 5 gallon drain tray I had handy.  As it was pouring in, I found a bolt with the right thread to replace the banjo fitting, thus stopping the draining after a quart or so.  Then with the filter out of the way, I was able to unbolt the pump and then unscrew the second fitting, leaving the rubber hose attached.

The only difference between the two pumps was that the wire didn't have a fancy fitting on the new one.  I moved over the one fuel line and put a spade connector on the wire.  In addition, there was a rubber protector over the upper end of the pump where it might rub on the fuel tank so I moved that over too.  Here you can see the two pumps together.

Once that was done, it was just a matter of putting everything back together and checking for leaks.  This may not have fixed the problem, but if it reoccurs, it will be a simple wiring issue that I can sort out on the road.

Since the car was on the lift, I decided to spiff up the exhaust tips.  The ANSA red tape was long gone and most of the ANSA decals were toast too.  For the red tape, I found that red electrical tape cut the right width works fine on the 330.  This may not be true on the 308 as the tips are much closer to the engine, but time will tell.  In addition, I cleaned off the remnants of the old decals and put on new ones from Parker Hall's Kilimanjaro Design.  Here's the final results.