Saturday, June 26, 2021
I’m here at my PC feeling frustrated. The fuel pump — the expensive one — I got from the eBay seller arrived yesterday and it was not a close enough match for my Plymouth. The arm was about 3/4 of an inch too short,, the body of the pump was significantly smaller, and the ports just didn’t match up. I sent the seller a message about returning it, which I plan to do this week.
Now according to my local parts guru, a replacement — closer to original equipment than the universal pump they ordered — was available from Amazon, so I ordered it. It was due to arrive today, but judging from the UPS tracking, there’s no way in hell it was going to arrive in time. They updated the tracking to show “delayed”, which is no surprise. Rather than give me a delivery day, they’re giving me a delivery week — it will be here by July 1st. Great.
I’m not sure what the hell I’m going to do if this second one won’t work. I’m seriously considering an electric fuel pump mounted back at the tank. I can simply block off the fuel pump and deal with the electric pump. The benefit of the electric is that it gets me halfway to a surefire cure for vapor lock — all I’ll need to do is to add a return line to the tank.
In fact, if this next fuel pump doesn’t fit correctly, I’m certain I’m going with an electric. I’ll mount it ahead of the tank. I’ll need to run a power line to it that connects to the ignition key so it doesn’t run full time, and so I won’t need to add an on/off switch for the pump. The weather for tomorrow — Sunday — is supposed to be nice, and I would have loved a chance to have installed the pump and confirmed it was or was not the issue.
Until the new pump gets here, I’m in holding pattern. But I’m going to start planning what I’ll need to install an electric fuel pump. I still would like to get the Plymouth out to A1A to have the cooling system checked.
To add insult to injury, the Whiskey City Cruisers had their car cruise in town today, and here I was, with my 1956 Plymouth sitting idle without a damn fuel pump. ARGH!
HEAVY CHEVY QUERY. I’m curious what the odds are of running into my old 1955 Chevy Bel Air 2-door hardtop at one of the Whiskey City Cruiser events. I’m not sure if I can recognize it, but I’ll have to try. I know the car inside and out, though I haven’t seen in in 7 or 8 years.