Consider me edjemucated. : ) It'll take a lot more than that to get me on
Ford's production side, but I appreciate a lesson anytime, thanks for
sharing. I see how it would make a lot of sense to have it cut off in an
accident situation and such, but what she spelled to me was just losing the
passenger side onto the gravel and bringing it back - I think I'll have to
take that as the questionable factor ;)
Greg Maust
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Burns" <bburns37@att.net>
To: <autox@autox.team.net>
Sent: Sunday, February 02, 2003 8:20 PM
Subject: Re: Off Topic: Merc Sable Fuel/Ignition Shutoff?
> At 04:34 PM 2/2/2003, Red Raevyn wrote:
> >...but if you ask me it's simply another piece of Ford engineering
brilliance.
>
> Actually, it makes a lot of sense.
>
> My first experience with an electric fuel pump shut-off switch was a 1978
> Toyota Celica (furrin' car). If the oil pressure dropped too low, an oil
> pressure switch would open and shut off the fuel pump. If you happened to
> go around a freeway ramp kinda fast with a low tank of gas, the fuel pump
> pickup would starve, the engine would start to die, the oil pressure would
> drop, and the fuel pump would just quit pumping. Usually, this required
> coasting around the ramp until the fuel leveled out in the tank so you
> could re-start the engine.
>
> My next experience with an electric fuel pump shut-off was a 1979
> Volkswagen Rabbit (furrin' car built in Westmoreland, Pa.). The fuel pump
> relay contained an electronic circuit that monitored the tachometer signal
> from the ignition coil. If the distributor points stopped opening and
> closing, the fuel pump stopped. I don't recall ever having a problem with
> this, though the presence of a tach signal at the fuse block (where the
> fuel pump relay was mounted) made it pretty easy to install a tachometer
in
> low-buck Rabbits that didn't come with one.
>
> I don't know when Ford started installing impact switches in their fuel
> pump circuits. The assumption is that if you hit something hard, thus
> damaging the front of the vehicle, you probably want the fuel pump to stop
> delivering a flammable liquid to a part of the car that may have hot stuff
> or sparking stuff. I also don't know how many other manufacturers use
these
> impact switches.
>
> By the way, the Ford switch used to be mentioned by part number in the
> vehicle preparation rules for the SCCA Trans Am series. The switch was
> required on Trans Am cars in order to stop the fuel pump if the car was in
> an accident.
>
> Also, by the way, Ford usually mentions the switch in the owners manual
> explaining what it does and how to reset it. Of course, vehicle owners
> manuals are not high on anybody's top ten reading list.
>
> Bob...
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