Need advice on fuel pump connections

[Coelacanth]

So, I finally had time to drop the fuel tank and replace the fuel pump with an upgraded Racetronix pump. I also have the fuel pump installation kit with the new sock, piece of fuel line, O-ring gasket and hose clamps. I ran into a snag when trying to follow the Racetronix fuel pump R & R instructions. Firstly, the original fuel pump completely lacks a plastic connector, it just has 2 wires with spade connectors; a grey/brown one and a black one; grey being the positive, evidently. Furthermore, the OEM spades will certainly not connect to the inside of the small connector end of the new wire connector, and even if they did, they'd be way too close to each other for comfort.

Am I fine to just cut that small connector off, cut the spade ends off, and simply solder the wire ends to the new wire connector with some heat-shrink? As this will be inside the gas tank, will the heat shink degrade? Has anyone else run into this problem and have a better suggestion?

I tried to capture everything in a single picture; the aging yellowed pump is on the left; the Racetronix one on the right. The 2 wire connector ends on the far left.

I'll be Dremeling down both ends of the feeder tube a tad to remove the sections where the inside diameter narrows down unnecessarily.

Thanks guys!

 

[TurboBuRick]

You can solder or just butt connect it.

 

[GNRick]

Before you button everything up, make sure your RX pump is not running opposite the old pump.

 

[Coelacanth]

Before you button everything up, make sure your RX pump is not running opposite the old pump.

How would I determine that? At least they both have (+) and (-) markings on the pump bodies, so it should make reconnecting the 2 wires easy...I assume the brown/grey wire goes to the (+) and the black wire goes to (-)?

 

[GNRick]

Lol...I think they do things different in Canada. While the tank is still on the ground, turn the key and see if the car starts. If u hear the pump running but you have no fuel pressure (and the car doesn't start) then it's running in reverse!

 

[Chuck Leeper]

1. Hot wired, or not. Ohm test the in trunk power wire to the two in the tank., to find which 1 is the 12V power.
2. Jump the green wire at the alt to the back of the alternator. Using a test lite, see which intank wire is hot.

DO NOT create sparks around the tank opening!! Get the tank away from the car!

 

[Coelacanth]

Thanks for the advice, guys. I have an update and a few more questions. Here's my gas tank; I was surprised how good it looked after more than 3 decades! Fortunately this car was never winter-driven. This was after scrubbing it down with dish soap & hot water and a sponge. There's some very light surface rust streaks in the area of the rubber strap belts, but that's it. What are suggestions to prevent any rust from spreading? One buddy said to leave it alone as it's already galvanized and never winter-driven. Myself, I feel like I should paint on some POR-51 or Rust Bullet or some similar neutralizer, at the very least.

When I was looking at the fuel pump hanger assembly, this blue plastic part bolted on with 2 Torx screws caught my attention. One of the screws (right side in the pic) is significantly more unscrewed than the other; is this to adjust something, or should I be tightening it up? EDIT: Or perhaps removing it, as it appears to be part of the pulsator assembly, which should be removed if I'm not mistaken?

 

[Mike Licht]

he does not have a racetronix pump he has a walbro, the only time it will run backwards is if you hook it up backwards so the the polarity is right it will be ok, What you really need is the new style hangar instead of the old G75 unit or the bulkhead connector with the new style plug since yours does not look too rusty. unfortunately those parts are not available from racetronix any more. I would use but connectors and not solder, solder joints crack with vibration the other problem is gas attacks tape and some shrink tube where you might get sparks inside the tank, call if you need help. the other option is getting the complete hangar with the new 255 pump we have those and it would just drop in
Mike

 

[Coelacanth]

Thanks Mike. My pump is a Racetronix GSS294M, which I discovered after more research that it has reversed polarity (compared to a 340M) to the wire adapter included in the Racetronix installation kit (I bought this separately from the pump). Not a problem, I just did as suggested and butt-crimped the wires from the hanger to the wire adapter after cutting off the small connector, running the tan wire to the (+) side of the pump and black wire to the (-) side. The Racetronix instructions reference a "redundant ground clamp" that's basically a hose clamp that you attach to the metal fuel return line and has a spade connector on it to attach the redundant ground wire. I don't have this at all; I just wired up the pump to the hanger assembly as follows; I don't suppose I need to do anything further, do I?

I still have 2 questions...

1. The instructions, and Earl's guide, which I was following closely (thanks, earlbrown!) mention to toss out the pulsator, and I've removed that part...but the instructions I've seen online and with my kit don't show that blue plastic part that's screwed on with 2 Torx screws...that looks like it's needed for the fuel level sender to work, the sender has a metal spade that slides up/down the metal contact strip on the blue part . I have a picture of it removed here, I believe I'll need to reinstall it.

2. I was stupid and didn't remember what position the fuel sock was in when I pulled off the old one. Can someone tell me what clock position the sock points to relative to something else on the hanger assembly?

Thanks!

 

[GNRick]

I will leave your 2 questions to the "experts", but I do have one more tip. If your gauge reads way past full when the tank is full, and then shows u have gas when the tank is really empty....bend the float arm inward about 10 degrees. This way the arm will not be maxed out with a full tank of gas, but will drop down further than it did on an empty tank.

 

[Coelacanth]

Great tip...I *was* having an issue with my gauge...it seemed to be reading a higher fuel level than actual, but I don't recall it going way above full. It's good to know before I put everything back together...I'll take your suggestion, Rick. I would still love advice on the 2 questions before I wrap up this job. Anyone?

 

[Mike Licht]

the reason its backwards is because that adaptor install kit was not for that pump but you should be ok, the blue part is a piece of the fuel level sending unit. Just put it back where it was.

 

[GNRick]

I think the sock points towards the float. Sort of keeps everything compact.

 

[Coelacanth]

Something interesting just occurred to me, since I mentioned it seemed I was having an issue with the gas gauge reading higher than it actually was, but not going way above "full"...before I removed that blue fuel level sender part, I mentioned earlier that one of the screws attaching it was unscrewed quite a bit more than the other. This might've caused there to be too much space between the float/sender contact spade and contact strip, and it wouldn't be making full contact at one end of the sweep. Maybe that might've caused the weird fuel level readings?

 

[GNRick]

You could play with the float with the hanger out of the gas tank with koeo and have a partner in the car looking at the gauge. Maybe you could figure something out this way.

 

[Coelacanth]

Well, I re-did the butt crimp connectors, using nylon ones. Nobody mentioned using the inexpensive vinyl ones wasn't a good idea, but only nylon ones should be used, as it won't decompose in fuel. I used a couple nylon zip-ties to tidy it up, and reinstalled the blue plastic fuel level sender strip after giving both the spade and wire strip a careful sanding with 400-grit sandpaper to remove some carbon buildup.

As mentioned before, I reversed the tan and black wires going to the Racetronix connector as the polarity is reversed on this unit.

Check my work please, is there anything else I should do before reinstalling the pump in the tank and work on the Racetronix hotwire kit? I'm still not sure which direction the fuel sock should be pointing...with the pump installed in the tank, looking at it from the rear bumper, and the feeder lines branching out to the right at 90 degrees/about 3 o'clock, and the fuel filler tube pointing straight back at 6 o'clock, what direction should the sock be pointing at?

 

[RmvBfrFlght]

...what direction should the sock be pointing at?

I've always put them on inline with the front to rear of the car. With the short end of the sock toward the front of the car, long end towards the rear of the car. I don't know if that is correct, but it seems to work.

RemoveBeforeFlight

 

[Coelacanth]

Well, I treated the gas tank to a couple coats of Rust Bullet and Rust Bullet Blackshell to make sure it can't rust for another few decades, and gives it a nice gloss black finish, not that you can really see much of it under the car. Reinstalled the pump & hanger assembly, bolted up the gas tank and installed the Racetronix hotwire kit. I already did a battery-to-frame ground wire previously. I then reconnected the battery and turned the key to "On" but not "Start"...it was showing just under 40 PSI with no leakage. It fired right up after that, and ran smoothly. Ran it for a few minutes and checked the pressure again with the line off and it was reading about 45 PSI. I adjusted down to 43 PSI and took it for a drive without hitting it too hard...seems to run great. I'm waiting for an electric fuel pressure and boost gauge to be installed so I can make sure fuel pressure rises 1:1 with boost. I'll also check for knock with ALDLdroid when I have another sunny day.

Fuel level gauge with only about 10 bucks gas in the tank seemed to be reading about right, and looked correct with another 20 bucks pumped in...about a half a tank.

It was correct to reverse the Racetronix installation kit wire connector/adapter to reconnect the Racetronix GSS294M pump correctly.

The biggest challenge was trying to figure out how to route the hotwire kit in the correct locations above the rear end using the poor pictures and description from Racetronix, and figuring out how to understand my stock fuel pump hanger assembly, which is clearly different from any instructions I found, printed or online.

Thanks for all the help and advice, guys! As always it's appreciated!