Hi all,
This is my first post so go easy on me. I am just getting back into jousting
about on my black beauty TR3 and am deciding whether to go electric, like
Bobby Dylan circa '65, now that it seems to be time for a new fuel pump.
My 1959 TR3 fuel pump has finally given up the ghost and I am wondering what
the pro's and cons are of putting in a new fangled electric one. I see a
rebuild kit out on Ebay for less than $20 but I am wondering if since I have
already desecrated my TR by putting a Petronix ignition in it would it be
easier and more reliable to now take the opportunity to put in an electric
fuel pump. If so is there any particular one that anyone recommends? I know
that I would have to close up the gaping hole in the block that would be left
without the original fuel pump there. Is that a tricky thing to do? If it is
a pretty straight forward conversion I am leaning towards doing it.
The reason I believe that the old one is shot is that in spite of the old TR
running great most of the time...after driving it around for a while it gets
to the point where it feels like it is running only on a couple of cylinders.
Very much like it is running out of gas though I had just filled up. Plenty
of gas getting to the pump, can see fuel in my see through filter right before
the carbs and no blockage. I was able to get home from a local drive but just
barely. Looked at the top of what I am pretty confident is the original fuel
pump and it is obvious that gas has been seeping out of there. Not a lot but
at least some. Took out the pump and opened it up to look at the diagphram
(sp?) and although I couldn't see any cracks or obvious problems it was
soaking wet with gas.
Before I took it apart, or even took it off the car I did the hand pump lever
and it was pumping but with alot of extraneous noise. Like it was sucking a
bunch of air in places it wasn't meant to be. Which I believe matches up with
the symptoms I have felt driving where it will run great the majority of the
time but after maybe half an hour of jousting around goes into this 'starving'
for fuel act. I should have checked the fuel pressure before I removed it but
it was so darn easy to remove and I wanted to confirm my theory of a bad pump
without having to run out and get an inline pressure gauge. What is the
normal fuel pressure for a TR3 anyway? I would suspect not very much...like 3
or 4 pounds?
Any thoughts on this more than welcome.
Thanks very much,
Jim Lee
TR3 1959
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