Facet electric pump failure and fix

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pishta

pishta

I know I'm right....
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if anyone of you guys with lo output motors are running a Facet style electric pump (the "jiggler" style) that is cylindrical shaped (as opposed to a transformer looking thing) let me tell you what I found when I ran mine. Im idling my motor to get it hot for smog and the motor dies after 10 minutes. I look at fuel bowl and its empty. I turn off and on again but the fuel pump is dead. I touch it and it almost burns my hand, so its got 12V but its not doing anything (including passing fuel to cool it) so off it comes. I grind the crimp ring off and it seperates, dumping a bunch of liqued in the process. Its not fuel, its water! WTF is water doing in my electric fuel pump? the cap that I took off (the output side) contains a circuit board and the wires along with the tube for the piston. There is a rubber seal that goes over the tube and into the cap so no fuel can get into the electronics cavity, but sho'nuf it was full of water by the waterline I could see on the wall. This is a mystery: could water seperate and enter the cavity past the seal when gas could not? could I drill a small weep hole in this area to facilitate future draining? Its a naked SMT PC board so Im sure gas should not be in contact with it and the water seemed to be shorting the PCB as it started to work again after I drained and dried off the PCB. Its back together and I spot welded the cap back on, ran it for 10 minutes, no leaks and seems to be working again.
 
That's good info,Pishta.. When I did parts,warranty was a consistent issue,with these.
 
I ordered a new one ($9 Ebay) anyway as it seems not to tick over as fast as I remember it when new but Ill shake the new one to be sure its not some sort of liquid cooling or something. If it doesnt shake and weighs the same, Ill drill a small weep hole there. only thing I can think of was that water got in through the wire bushings but the car has never been underwater and getting rain in So. Cal is like finding an old Hemi in a junk yard.
 
I tried running those pumps on VW engines. I got bad gas with water once, that messes with them too. I got home by swapping the hose to gravity feed.

I also tried one on my V8 Studebaker, not much luck there. They are a weak pump.
 
These look like a copy of the old aircraft shuttle pumps, that work at low pressure and were used in low wing aircraft like Pipers to overcome gravity effects in the feed to the main fuel pump. I would not expect them to be very useful as a main fuel pump. They come in a higher pressure/flow model in the Facet line. $9? LOL, the FAA approved ones are in the $200-$400 range!
 
I got my new one, sounds like a machine gun! Loud as hell, i need to wrap it or something. Facet says the fuel is supposed to dampen the piston and if its loud, there may be a leak or not enough back pressure to dampen but i run a return line so i guess im F'd. Itx working, its just louder than my motor!
 
Sounds like every square Facet pump I have tried! I don't use them for that reason, even in my rally cars.
 
Thanks, will try those as I have a few, but its the pump clicking onto itself that is making the noise. like a little jackhammer. I use one of those as the positive terminal in my engine bay from the trunk mounted battery lead.
 
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