[VB] diagnosing bad fuel pump?

[C. Dreike]

Hi Kevin,
Which carb do you have?
How about the float? Did you open up the bowl and check it out? Maybe 
some sludge has developed in there.
And yes, poor fuel pressure could be a problem. Do you have a pressure 
gage and a T to put in the line? I have one of those all purpose 
pressure/vacuum gages. Fuel pressure will be somewhere in the 2-7 psi 
range. Maybe someone else will chime in with a more exact pressure 
point.

Does this happen on hot days? Not likely, but a vapor lock could 
occur.

BTW, my fuel injection is running nicely. I'll be working on the cold 
start later in the year as its been too warm out here in So Cal to 
have a problem since about April. Temperature today, approx. 75F.

Cheers,

Chris
64 DD Kamper Kit
Now with FI power.

Scientists seek to understand what is,
while engineers seek to create what never was.
As the "Bad Astronomer" Phil Plait says, "Teach a man to reason, and 
he can think for a lifetime."
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kevin Guarnotta" <kguarnotta at usa.net>
To: <vintagebus at type2.com>; <type2 at type2.com>
Sent: Monday, October 07, 2013 7:05 PM
Subject: [VB] diagnosing bad fuel pump?


We I'm having some trouble with my '65. It has sort of become a 
weekend
warrior - as I don't really drive it much during the week, I use my 
truck
mostly during the week, and the bus on the weekends - that is until 
the salt
starts to fly.



Anyway this what is happening, and what I've tried to do to fix it so 
far.



I go to start the bus, and it starts ok. I drive a mile or 10. I stop. 
I get
out of car for a bit (stop to get gas, pick a friend up, drop someone
off.etc.) I go back to start bus, and it will not start. It turns 
over,
fairly strong, but won't start. I try a jumper battery pak - thinking 
extra
Voltage may help. But it doesn't. Eventually I get it to start, but it 
take
a lot of babying with the accelerator pedal.



While driving around, sometime I seem to lose almost all power - but 
it is
not consistent. For example I'll hit a red light - maybe 1 time out of 
5 the
bus struggles mightily to get going again. If the bus is in neutral, 
and it
is idling, and I hit the accelerator pedal, the engine RPMS do not 
increase
in the slightest.



Sometimes it even stalls. That happened twice today. Kind of a royal 
pain,
especially when in a busy intersection. Eventually I made it home.



What I've done over the last couple months - tune up, adjust valves, 
oil
change, new spark plug wires, new distributor cap, took off carb, 
soaked it
in carb cleaner, replaced gaskets in carb.



I'm starting to think fuel pump, as it seems like it is starved for 
gas, and
I'm thinking the times I have problems, are when I'm going uphill. But 
maybe
I'm just associating the hill part, and that is correlation and not
causation.



Anyway - as my feeling say fuel pump - is that something that could 
cause
intermittent problems, or is it something that either works or 
doesn't. Is
there a way to test it. If the pump is bad, is it something I should 
repair,
or just get a new one. They look like they are only about $20 to $30. 
If the
new ones are junk, and I should repair the old one, I could do 
that..let me
know.



Some more info - this is my '65 bus. It has an alternator, it is 12V. 
If you
need more info to help with the diagnosis, let me know.



As usual, thanks for all your opinions.



-Kevin Guarnotta

Jamaica Plain, MA



'78 Westy

'69 Singlecab

'65 Ez-camper





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