<VV> Electric Fuel Pump????

[Smitty]

Loved the comment on the electric pump being a patch for a problem.  Problem 
may have nothing to do with the mechanical pump.  Sure it will run on an 
electric pump but what are you actually curing?  I can tell you one thing 
you are not curing and that is accessibility for maintenance.  I recall one 
convention when a friend and I were traveling together.  It was kind of 
misting rain.  His electric pump quit and I took him to find another.  I 
turned my car around so the headlights sort of lit the underside of his car 
while he changed the pump.  Car on a scissor jack and him rolling around on 
the wet ground to get the job done.  Strangely enough my mechanical pump 
died a couple of days later as I was on my way to the banquet.  I had a suit 
and tie on.  I got my tools and spare pump out of the trunk, rolled up my 
white shirt sleeves, and changed the pump in 10 minutes, getting nothing 
dirty but my hands.  So yeah I had a mechanical pump failure.  As usual it 
was the diaphragms.  At that time we were all suffering from crappy 
diaphragm material and that is why I carried a spare.  I'm not convinced 
that problem is over yet.  Damn sure not the fault of the pump design.  It 
may be a design of the 20s/30s but it is fantastic in its simplicity.  It is 
self regulating and it doesn't pump unless a demand is placed on it.  When 
the demand is such it will deliver a fire hose quantity of fuel, taxing no 
system except the rotation of the crankshaft.  It doesn't pump unless the 
engine is running, unlike the fire hazard electric pump.
So if you got a problem with Mechanical fuel pumps and don't fix that 
problem, don't blame the pump.  Blame yourself.
About 20 years ago when the bad diaphragms first showed up I decided to 
rebuild my own pumps.  I found that there wasn't any commercially available 
material available and I ran into technical problems.  From time to time I 
would try again until the time invested was not worth my progress.   Maybe a 
half dozen years ago I tried again.  I found a superior nitrile rubber 
diaphragm material and came up with a much simplified way to secure the pump 
shaft to the diaphragm cluster.  My club bought a section of sheet rubber to 
make diaphragms from and we had a tech session building pumps.  Disaster 
struck in the form of more diaphragm failures and I don't think any of them 
survived 6 months.  I found out the material I had received was not what I 
requested and I re ordered.  This time I got what I wanted and we re rebuilt 
the clubs fuel pumps.  Beginning from a time about 4 years ago and with the 
latest material we have not had one diaphragm failure.  When the vendors 
finally realize that they will ever get crap from the manufacturers as long 
as they keep on buying the crap, we are stuck with it.  If some hard charger 
starts a pump recycling business like has been done with carburetors we will 
forget that electric pumps even exist unless we are racing.