360 fuel not gettting past mech. pump

[OapEM]

Hopefully one of you pro's will be able to solve the problems I am having with my newly acquired 360 GLS 2.0 carb.

I am certain that the mechanical fuel pump has given up the ghost. It sucks fuel up to about 3" from the pump and then it won't go any further.

I have used the search and there was one post by dr1fter that sounded like the same issues but it had not been resolved.

It broke down on me this morning, after taking an age to start and needing a jump, when it did fire up it wasn't happy idling and stalled a few times before I persuaded it to stay alive. It also chugged a bit on the motorway yesterday, fuel starvation? Today two miles down the road it began chugging, I pulled over and it died. Fired it back up and it wasn't idling - just cut out straight away. A mate took me for a fivers of petrol - I assumed this was the cause, because the light was flashing, even though there's loads of fuel in it...

It still wouldn't idle after the fuel was put in, then the battery was dying so we removed the pump to take apart and inspect to see if we could find the problem.

It was pretty gunked up inside, the gauze was choked up too, we cleaned it up with carb cleaner and petrol and put it back together.

Refitted to the car with new DIY gaskets, then the car would not even attempt to fire :S (maybe as it now had zero fuel in the pump?) It got close a couple of times but still was only drawing the fuel to about 3" from the pump then stopping. My mate sucked it through then quickly put the feed pipe back on and I tried starting it but the fuel just ran straight back down the pipe.

Called out the AA and he used a suction pump thing and it pulled it through no bother, so seems the pump is definitely at fault?
We were also wondering whether the gaskets were possibly spacing the pump away from the cam lobe so it wasn't making (good) contact, but they are basically the same size as the originals.

Tomorrows plan is remove the lines and blow through with compressor, as suggested on here in another post and by AA bloke. It has no inline filter (will get one ASAP) I also cannot get another pump until Tues/Weds but will order one.

The crap thing is, the lever on the pump that runs off the cam would stiffen up after 10/12 pumps before we stripped and cleaned it, and after that it was fine and seemed to have decent suction/blowing capabilities, but maybe not good enough!

Sorry for the essay, but just wanting to let everyone know the score.

Any help is appreciated!

Do you think it's as simple as the pump being on it's last legs and hasn't the power to draw the fuel far enough through?

Cheers, Liam.

[jtbo]

New fuel pump will cost under a tenner so that might be good place to check, then you could try it without fuel tank cap as if there can be problems with tank ventilation.

Also in tank filter can cause various problems, you can access it in 360 hatchback by removing rear seat and taking black lid off where is two wires, then you need to disconnect wire from fuel gauge sender and also fuel hoses, after that unscrew sender unit out and filter should be at end of that part.

In sedan tank is in same position, but I don't know if access to it will be same or different.

Then one very common issue is with those fabric covered fuel hoses, you can do a search and it should find picture (it has locations of hoses) and some info about those that I made of, but basicly those hoses will look good even perfect when visually inspected even those would have more holes than hose in them, so worth to replace them all if you have them.

[OapEM]

Thanks for all of that info. mate! If not today then definitely tomorrow I shall be investigating. What do you do if the fuel cap is causing issues, just replace with a different type? A locking one would be nice and posh anyway
As far as the fabric covered hoses go, I did read something about them on here but never seen any pics etc by you. Will take a look now. IIRC I only have a few inches of it left, on the supply pipe, it is jubilee clipped onto the (standard?) plastic pipe that runs through the chassis leg, but I did intend on replacing many things, just didn't expect this straight away lol

Cheers mate

[jtbo]

I knew I made such picture once, remembering where it is located is the difficult part



Problem is not actually fuel cap, but ventilation of tank as it has own ventilation hose that can be blocked, sure way to test it is to take fuel cap off and test without it. That does not cause problems too often, but better check than presume.

[OapEM]

Awesome mate Paint FTW lol

Mine looks very wrong between plastic pipe and fuel pump lol. No filter at all :S
This shall soon change. your pic gives me an idea of how much rubber hose I require to replace also

Much appreciated, Liam.

[OapEM]

Sorted. New pump and a can of easy start for the stubborn bastard FTW

Before I next use it I will replace all of the old braided style fuel hose etc as suggested above