Fuel pump base modifications
I decided it was time to get the high pressure fuel pump figured out. It’s been sitting around half-assembled for too long. The first tube I tackled will hopefully be the most difficult. As I mentioned in this post, a common problem with the fuel pump/filter kit is that one of the fittings on the pump must be moved. The fitting has a nice pre-made piece of tubing on it, but I wasn’t able to re-bend the tubing to make it work. I used the new 180 degree bender to make a replacement. My first attempt was close, but I didn’t leave enough room at the end to slip on the sleeve and be able to get the flaring tool on it. You need a fairly long section (1/2-3/4″) at the end of the tube for that. My second attempt worked great. I was a little worried that I made the bends too wide, but I trial fit the cover with no issues.
The rest of the tubing is rather dependent on the location of the pump relative to the filter relative to the selector valve. Seemed like a good time to clamp the things down. However, I still had the problem where the fuel pump base wasn’t fitting well between my floor stiffeners. Time to fix that. I can understand it being off a little bit, but mine was close to 1/8″ too wide. I tried bending in the flanges and jamming it in there, but the base bowed up and tended to spring out. I noticed that Walter Tondu solved the issue (4/12/04 entry), by cutting off the flanges and riveting on angle stock at the correct width. I talked with Van’s support a few weeks ago on this subject. They said they would look into the issue and that using angle as a fix would work fine.
I cut off the flanges with the band saw and cut a couple of pieces of angle to replace them. I laid out the holes and drilled them and then called it a night. It’s a little frustrating to spend time on something that should have worked in the first place, but it’s better to just take care of it and move on.
