I've been using fuel pumps with Dave DuBois' opto-electric mods for
years. Although Dave's work and response is impeccable I've not had
consistent success with them, though everything in the design and
implementation indicates they should be infallible. I had 3 'in
rotation;' one failed after less than a thousand miles this summer--I
changed it out for another DD conversion on the side of the road--and
that one has now failed. It worked fine after installation for over
5,000 miles but has sat in my shop for about 5 months, and failed to
answer the call today. I swapped in my last 'spare' and, so far it's
working though I've only put about 10 miles on it. Others have worked
for over 10K miles before expiring. Apparently, Dave has health issues
so cannot address the problems with these pumps.
Although having committed to these solid state conversions I still have
plenty of parts to assemble a couple points-driven pumps. Problem is, I
haven't had good luck with them either and, last I checked, the
aftermarket points are of suspect quality (Dave concurred with this
assessment). I have studied all aspects of these pumps and done my best
to assemble and adjust them, and they aren't abused in service--though
some have suffered from getting, er, 'moist' in serious rainstorms--and
I just don't understand it (I've 'fixed' a couple in motel rooms). I
know Kees and others have gotten years and thousands of mile off points
they don't work reliably for me and, yes, I've used capacitors,
transistors, diodes and TVSes for spark suppression, all with the same
erratic longevity and reliability. I do think, at over 5K miles/year on
my BJ8 I probably work my car harder than most but still think I should
be able to get more from these pumps. I don't abuse them aside from
driving my car fairly frequently and for one long trip of up to 5K miles
every year.
Still, I will stick with SU pumps because, well, just because. They are
the heartbeat of a Healey and the kind that run continuously are
annoying.  But, I don't know where to go from here. I hate to buy
another as I probably have enough parts to assemble 4 or 5 with points
(if I could find good quality points). SC Parts was advertising an
aftermarket substitute--diaphragm type--but it has weird fittings--I'm
not going to cut into my original banjo-fitted pipes--and is for
negative ground only.
Thanks for listening.
Bob
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