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D?j? Vu Mid-Blue - 1989 Volvo 245 DL

According to cleanflametrap Art the Airtex E8778 is a good intank option if you're looking to stay within the OE parameters, I'm probably gonna grab one for my turbo.

I should know this since I work for a fuel systems company. :oops: I assume that the priming pumps are good for a decent amount of power then? I do plan to keep the car within stock power for a while, but that may change in the distant future. Will most options give me room to grow?
 
I'm not trying to poop all over your choice of parts. You said your new one is Delphi brand anyway, so it may be better. I guess time will tell!

Hah, no worries. FCP has my back with a lifetime warranty if it goes bad, and if it does, lesson learned. I bought the car with the in tank pump broken, and still drove it around everywhere. It wasn't until 9 months after I bought it when I started doing some snooping out of boredom that I discovered it didn't work.

For me, apparently its a non-essential item but probably helps with longevity of the main fuel pump.
 
Hah, no worries. FCP has my back with a lifetime warranty if it goes bad, and if it does, lesson learned. I bought the car with the in tank pump broken, and still drove it around everywhere. It wasn't until 9 months after I bought it when I started doing some snooping out of boredom that I discovered it didn't work.

For me, apparently its a non-essential item but probably helps with longevity of the main fuel pump.

Ahh yeah. FCP will take care of you then.

It's amazing how resilient these cars are when it comes to certain failures. I read Art's article on pumps. I thought that annoying buzz was a heat shield or something! This makes so much more sense. I'll test the in-tank when I get home, but I already have an order for both pumps, a filter, and some other things on the way. I figure that the fuel system should probably be gone through regardless.
 
Well crap.

Misdiagnosed. I can hear the pump running when I jump the fuse. Now I'm stumped about both the ill performance and the buzzing.
 
I take it back AGAIN!

I thought about how this issue comes about after driving a while. I jumped fuses again while it was cold. It worked fine. Then I went for a long drive. When I jumped the fuses again it sometimes would growl, but then it would lock up.

Yep. That pump is bad. Although I was happy to know what the problem was, I was dreading to see what I was up against. My fears were very justified.
VKcQc2g.jpg

All I had to do was poke the little connector on the top for the thing to break off. Also, the tank is completely full. Hopefully I can get this thing apart, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
I'm not holding my breath.

You better, there's gonna be a whole lotta gas huffin' involved. Open all the doors and do it outside when you have a gentle breeze

I would personally look for a new tank though. That looks nasty
But then again us southerners aren't as accustomed to rust
 
You better, there's gonna be a whole lotta gas huffin' involved. Open all the doors and do it outside when you have a gentle breeze

I would personally look for a new tank though. That looks nasty
But then again us southerners aren't as accustomed to rust

Ha touche

IMO this tank should be good to go as long as the sending unit comes out as designed. The rust is truly only isolated to this area which is much thicker. I shouldn't need to worry about leaks or contamination. What I will do is break the tubes off the top because there's no chance of removing the hoses from those anyway.

By the way, I strayed away from the "upgrade" lift pump and bought a drop-in replacement. I didn't want to deal with modifying the brand new sender other than maybe swapping the float ball. I have enough to worry about as it is.
 
The first miracle happened as soon as I came outside.
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I am extremely happy that I didn't have to drop the tank.
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Now I have to deal with new sender problems. The feed line is too long.
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No worries. A dremel cutoff wheel does a pretty good job. Then I cleaned the rest up with a reaming tool and a mini file.
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All set! I transferred the old float ball over as well since I heard the replacements are trash.
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Yes, I drilled another hole in the trap door with my step bit. It's easier and the new sender came with a grommet anyway. :e-shrug: Then the fun began.
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Gross
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Another miracle!
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This was right where my luck ran dry. The fuel filter copper washers I got were sized terribly incorrectly. There was little to no chance of either side sealing, so I reused the old ones. Well...
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That's not going to work either. I ordered some different ones. Hopefully they work a little better.
 
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After breaking 3rd gear in the Camaro, I decided it would be easier to just take Friday off of work instead of trying to roll Moose out of the way of the GN and hoping that nobody dings me in the parking lot. Besides, I'm coming down to the final days before Moose is supposed to make the big trip to Michigan, and I still have a decent amount of work to do if I want to get this done to my satisfaction.

Look at this mess! Among it, would you be able to justify sending this fuel pump when it's this close to coming free? I can't. I don't even want to send it with all this nasty dissolved undercoating.
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The bolts and nuts holding all the clamps to the brackets were rusted together no hopes of coming loose. Time for persuasion.
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Much to my surprise, these brackets are actually in great shape! With a bit of wire wheeling and rust converter these are going to look great. All that nasty undercoating must have actually been doing something before the brake octopus dumped its juices all over the underside of the car.
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I did not order a new pump clamp because I could not find any. Luckily, this one will clean up nicely with new hardware.
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Eastwood rust converter has to be my my favorite spray can. This stuff has worked wonders on multiple projects.
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After waiting way too long to get parts, I finally received my incomplete order. The company cancelled those items, but I'm going to be giving them an earful on Monday. I don't see how it takes four days to pack up and send my parts. As usual, I'm going to be cutting things close to my 7/31 deadline.

The parts I'm missing are a new fuel filter clamp and the rubber fuel pump mounts. The clamp is not a huge deal since I can clean up and reuse the old one. The rubber mounts are kinda critical though. If push comes to shove, I can mount the fuel pump bracket with some "custom" isolators and zip ties for the trip, but I'd obviously rather not. I found a seller on Amazon who offered expedited shipping for a reasonable price, so I'm hoping that they show up on the early side of their estimate.

Unfortunately, I was much too hot to think about taking a lot of pictures of today's progress. I managed to extract a the busted bolt from the filter clamp and wire wheel it until it was fairly clean, but I ran out of rust converter. I had to run to Lowe's to get the hardware I needed, anyway but they did not have any of the spray can stuff. They did have naval jelly and Rustoleum though, so I figured I'd try that out. I was impressed with the naval jelly! I hope it holds up. The first pic is showing the results of the first 5 minute treatment. After that, I was able to go back to the wire wheel and knock off what came loose, apply another 10 minute treatment of naval jelly, clean it up again, and give it some paint!
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Between the filter and it's clamp is a rubber isolater. The one I removed was super dirty and impregnated with rust. I'm going to try to revive it. I have no idea what I'm doing, nor did I even bother to look anything up. I'm just winging it to see what happens.

First, I gave it a hot and soapy wash. There was a lot of undercoating on it, and I figured the heat would help expand the rubber enough to let go of most of the rust, and bring deep stuff to the surface. I was right! My soapy water turned very nasty. Then I dried the fairly clean rubber off and drenched it in tire shine. I'm not entirely sure what I thought this was going to do except suck the stuff in and make it slippery, but It actually helped make cleaning the little grit even easier. The little rust particles are coming off with my finger nail. I'm sure it will offer a little bit of protection when it held back on to the clamp anyway.
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Perfect? Nah. Pretty good for the junk I had sitting around? Yeah. More work than this car deserves? YES. I guess this is just how I cope with waiting too long for parts.

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Very thorough & professional as always. Therapeutic, even. Hope it comes together and performs well come the 31st!
 
Very thorough & professional as always. Therapeutic, even. Hope it comes together and performs well come the 31st!

Thanks. I really wish I was still sharing the same experience. To be honest, my enthusiasm for this car is dwindling fast. You'll see why in just a second!

Remember all that stuff about "thorough and professional"? I'm gonna throw that away for a second. :lol: This car needs to get me to work while I wait for those stupid rubber mounts.

A little cardboard...
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Some zipties...
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And there you have it!
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I then went for a little test drive. It didn't go well. It ran as crappy as it always. When I got home and parked it in the driveway, I noticed that the main pump was growling just idling. I did the Fuse 4 and 6 trick. It made a normal noise for a second and then buzzed. :censored: Now what? Could I have electrically hooked it up backward? It did take forever to start the car which I thought was a bit weird for a return style fuel system.

I guess the next step will be to pull the supply hose off the main pump and try to pump fuel into a jug with the lift pump. Hopefully I didn't burn up either of the brand new pumps already. :grrr:

At least I did this hack job NOW instead of waiting for the mounts to come on Thursday because then my mood would be even worse!
 
My hunch is confirmed. Nothing came out the supply hose, but fuel started pumping through the return hose, rail, and back through the filter and main pump. Yikes. :oops: I've never flowed backward through a regulator before either... I'm not gonna think about that yet. I guess my saving grace is that both pumps should have at least had cool fuel running through them.

Back to the tank I go! At least it will be nice and rust-free this time.
 
My hunch is confirmed. Nothing came out the supply hose, but fuel started pumping through the return hose, rail, and back through the filter and main pump. Yikes. :oops: I've never flowed backward through a regulator before either... I'm not gonna think about that yet. I guess my saving grace is that both pumps should have at least had cool fuel running through them.

Back to the tank I go! At least it will be nice and rust-free this time.

Have you had someone jump the fuses while you are on the other end with a voltmeter on the unplugged supply pump harness? Takes 15 min to verify that the pump is getting proper voltage... I think they buzz & sputter when they receive too low voltage.
 
I guess the next step will be to pull the supply hose off the main pump and try to pump fuel into a jug with the lift pump. Hopefully I didn't burn up either of the brand new pumps already. :grrr:

Yea give that a shot...I fought similar issues and turned out my (new) tank pump was underperforming. I ended up replacing it with the "upgrade" pump from ipd and the main pump has been quiet.
https://www.ipdusa.com/products/5799/111016-volvo-in-tank-fuel-pump-upgrade-kit-aftermarket-7845k

I used the value of ~1qt / 30 sec of operation for my evaluation (Greenbook TP30454). This was in a Kjet car so YMMV.
 
Have you had someone jump the fuses while you are on the other end with a voltmeter on the unplugged supply pump harness? Takes 15 min to verify that the pump is getting proper voltage... I think they buzz & sputter when they receive too low voltage.

I can do that myself right? If I unplug, it shouldn't hurt anything having the fuses jumped. I'll give it a whirl
 
The pump only seems to plug in one way which is guess is why I never thought twice about it. It also matches my the way I plugged in the old pump.
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Okay... With the lift pump unplugged I can hear the main pump whining when I jump fuses. Now I'm confused.

That is strange... i'd reread art's guide again.

Maybe unplug the main pump too. put some long lead aligators on a volt meter, set to DC, and measure main pump voltage and then the tank pump voltage. You could have a tricky fuel pump relay? This is getting beyond my level of experience.

I'd just do that to completely cross out any chance of electrical issues. If you see a full 12.4-12.7 volts (also check your battery's resting terminal voltage), then you can probably cross off wiring. It'd be extra correct to do this test while the pump is actually plugged in though.

IDK about the main pump running with the fuses jumped though, I don't remember that happening when I did mine.

The pump only seems to plug in one way which is guess is why I never thought twice about it. It also matches my the way I plugged in the old pump.
rxfPHRZ

And you're certain you attached the ring terminals to the pump in the correct orientation too?
 
That is strange... i'd reread art's guide again.

Maybe unplug the main pump too. put some long lead aligators on a volt meter, set to DC, and measure main pump voltage and then the tank pump voltage. You could have a tricky fuel pump relay? This is getting beyond my level of experience.

I'd just do that to completely cross out any chance of electrical issues. If you see a full 12.4-12.7 volts (also check your battery's resting terminal voltage), then you can probably cross off wiring. It'd be extra correct to do this test while the pump is actually plugged in though.

IDK about the main pump running with the fuses jumped though, I don't remember that happening when I did mine.



And you're certain you attached the ring terminals to the pump in the correct orientation too?

I'm going to read it now. The last post is edited with a picture.
 
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