June 10, 2006 - The fuel pump saga finally ends
and fitting the exhaust (1)
When I decided to order a Walbro fuel pump instead of using the '03
Cobra tank and aviator pumps I knew I was going to have a tough time
finding a place to buy it from. I did a pretty extensive
search and couldn't find a reputable shop or even a shop I
recognized that sold the pump. As I look back on the
experience, any old shop probably could have ordered it and I know
for a fact that CJ Pony parts sells a Walbro made BBK pump
because a friend that works there told me they had them in stock.
After posting on several forums I decided the best advice was to
check EBAY. So that's what I did, and I found several
"companies" selling Walbro fuel pumps. I may have save a few
bucks up front, but waiting 3 weeks and paying for shipping back to
the seller definitely put me way behind. On Tuesday, June 5th
the RIGHT fuel pump finally showed up. In my haste to get it
in the tank I overlooked taking a picture of it. Now, my
nostalgic side wishes there was a picture of it, for sentimental
value...
Installing the pump was a lot smoother than the GSS341 was.
There should be no modification required, period, and that's
blatantly obvious when installing the right pump. The filter
bag fit through the hole in the tank and swiveling it in between the
baffles was easy. I snapped the supply, return, and vent lines
on and hooked up the pump electronics.
While removing the tank we learned that using a couple of 4x4s makes
handling the fuel tank a lot easier. We set the 4x4s on the
ground and put the tank on top of them - one on each end. The
jack slid under the tank and we were able to position it under the
center of gravity of the tank. The jack made quick work of
raising the tank, but moving it into position was a little more of a
challenge. After a few tries we realized that the jacking
point caused the tank to lean forward more than it's in-vehicle
position. We jacked it up as high as it would go and then
wrapped the straps around the tank and started the screws.
Tightening the screws pulled the tank into place. Shortly
thereafter we realized that the metal tab on the filler neck was on
backwards. The tank came down, the filler neck came out, and
we reversed the tab. For the life of me I can't remember if
the tab is on the right way in this picture.
Here's another picture, I don't remember why I took this one.
Maybe I wanted everyone to see all the rust above the fuel tank...
I was relieved to finally have the fuel pump installed and the tank
secured to the car, but I was not looking forward to trying to get
the exhaust to fit up. I had a feeling it wasn't going to be
as easy as slapping a few pipes together and turning a few wrenches.
We weren't sure how low the pipes would hang so we took the stock
hanger and modified it.
We worked from the back forward. We slipped the hangers on the
Bassani tailpipes into the rubber hangers. Getting the
tailpipes under the car and into position took a little bit of
effort. We came to the conclusion that most exhaust installers
had access to a lift and could go from the bottom up at a steep
angle. We didn't have that luxury so we had to twist the pipes
every which way before they slid in.
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