May 26, 2006 - Starting the Exhaust and the
Beginning of the Fuel Pump Saga (3)
This is where things started to get interesting. I had heard from
several people that installing the Walbro pump was straight forward
and did not require modification to the assembly. When it
didn't fit quite right I started to question whether we had the
right pump so I snapped the picture below.
It's a little hard to tell in the picture, but the stamped
lettering says GSS340. I ordered a GSS342. I didn't
notice the discrepancy until after the day was over and I was
looking through the photos. Anyway, we grabbed the new fuel
pump and started putting the assembly together.
One of the first things we noticed was the opening in the bracket
wasn't big enough for the bottom of the pump.
I was starting to think that something was wrong but I refused to
believe that we'd actually been sent the wrong pump. Maybe I
was hung over, maybe I was just tired, but if you have to modify the
bracket you have the wrong pump. That didn't stop us though,
out came the grinder.
The other red flag was the rubber cover. It was the wrong
size and shape for the bottom of the fuel pump, so we cut it.
In hindsight I really have to wonder what the hell we were
thinking. It was pretty obvious that we were installing the
wrong pump but we dismissed the signs and continued. Oddly
enough we were able to assemble the fuel pump and bracket. The
rubber hose needed to be shortened slightly but that wasn't much of
a big deal (and when we finally received the right pump its rubber
hose was also too long so we had to cut it regardless). The
last difference was the fuel pump filter bag. It was much bigger
than the stock piece, but it fit on and were able to slide the whole
assembly, with a little finesse, into the fuel tank.
I can't remember if we put the tank back in the car or not.
It really doesn't matter though, because we had the wrong fuel pump
installed and we were about the find out.
