Trailer tow vehicle fuel pumps

ContestID67 wrote:
Just my $0.02 but I have never had a fuel pump die except in my 1971
Chevy Mailbu 350CI, 250HP, 4 barrel holley carb with a standard
mechanically driven pump. Man, I loved that car even though it went
through too many fuel pumps. At least they were easy to change.

- John DeRosa



This thread has reminded me of the only fuel pump failure I've ever had
that occurred nearly a half century ago. The vehicle was a 1956
Chevrolet six cylinder, two door sedan. I had driven in on an afternoon
assignation with a lady who wasn't my wife, but was someone else's.
Being discreet we'd headed to a country motel about 30 miles from the
city where we lived. She'd brought a picnic meal and I brought wine.
It was one of those afternoons that are the stuff of fantasies and sweet
memories.

When 4:00 p.m. arrived, it was time to head back to town and dinners
with our respective spouses. The Chevy cranked but wouldn't start. A
quick look under the hood, a very wide open space compared the crowded
innards of a modern car, revealed that the foil diaphragm in the fuel
pump had ruptured. What to do. Back in the motel room I found a
picture postcard on stout stock with a glazed finish. My companion had
a small manicure scissors in her purse. Using the ruptured foil as a
pattern, I cut an improvised diaphragm from the postcard and installed it.

Two marriages and much embarrassment saved! In fact it worked so well
that some months passed before I remembered to replace it with the real
thing.

Doesn't have much to do with soaring, but ah, to be that young again.

Al