leaking fuel damper and fuel pump adventures

[harry3]

the story starts with a noisy in tank fuel pump, on my wagon 6 this is supposed to sit on the swirl pot or problems result, I wasnt able to see or feel the swirlpot and dont know what it looks like, the fuel return goes to it, and poking a wire thru the pipe would probably be a good idea for fuel circulation problems
close attention should be taken of the location of the filter bag on the bottom of the old pump with the new bag positioned the same way, also move the pump housing up and down before tightening the screws, elleries manual says use new screws but the old ones seemed OK, they a re soft metal so I suppose they can stretch, the cork gasket needed was available from my holden dealer

so next I decided to replace the exterrnal high pressure pump. its obvious that holden realised this pump would be noisy and also perhaps vibrated as its mounted on a subframe with rubber isolators and the pump has a soft rubber sleeve around it
the pump can be removed by undoing 1 bolt on a clamp but its easier to undo the 3 bolts that hold the subframe to under the floor, these have captive nuts.

on testing the pressures with the ignition on, the fuel damper, mounted nearby was leaking, it had never leaked before and I didnt disturb it so I can only think the new pump had extra pressure which was the excuse the damper needed for leaking anyone know exactly what this damper does, maybe reduce pulses in the fuel line?
quotes for a new damper were $100 to $140 so I got the damper of my parts wagon in the backyard and its OK, also noticed the external pump on it was a newish looking replacement, damn! the new one cost about $150

the original internal pump was AC and the external one bosch, the wire leads are only push on plugs and they look easily pulled off during bush bashing

since my previous car was a HR holden, the VL is incredibly complicated in comparison
despite an auto electrician claiming both pumps were very hard to find, I found them earily available and in severel brands
siphoning the petrol out of the tank needed a long length of hose and much patience, positioning the end in the tank takes an effort, blow thru the hose and if you hear bubbles, its in place
finally the elrctrical leads in the tank arent insulated so it must be the case that petrol doesnt conduct electricity, which I didnt know
theres a short length of rubber hose on the internal pump which can rot, causeing problems, but the hose on mine was OK

 

[ucwepn]

I had a similar problem and it took my dumb mechanic a long time to find it and after replacing lots of other parts like the ecu and distributer, it turned out to be a dead fuel pressure regulator which was working the internal pump way too hard and cause the internal pump to die (seizing 50% of the time). Replaced the pressure regulator and internal pump but now the car seems to use allot more fuel than it used to. My damper was also leaking at one point but all the pressures tested fine at the time thats why the mechanic had so much trouble finding the problem. I have checked all my lines and connections and they are all clamped up tight with no leaks in the lines, the rail or the injectors themselves (although it could be an internal injector leak) I will be taking it to JPC in thomastown when I get some cash and they will be able to sort it out. It bloody cost me $900 to get this sorted but at least I know I have some new parts which will last hopefully

I know how you feel mate, I had a Torana before this, can't go past the red 202 for reliability and ease to repair.

 

[harry3]

theres spme sort of adjuster screw on the top of the damper I wonder how its supposed to be used, also the direxction of petrol flow wasnt indicated

its been said the internal pump can overheat if you drive a lot with the tank almost empty as it needs petrol around it to take away the heat

 

[holdenvl87]

I had the same problem with my external fuel pump, it was leaking fuel and surging which caused the car to stall. I think the problem is that overtime the hoses break down and the clamps compress as much as they can until they cant compress any more, this was the problem in my case.

There are 3 hoses on the pump, one from the tank to the pump, one from the pump to the damper and the other from the damper onwards. I went out and bought some new hose and replaced all of these hoses. So far no problems. Hope this helps