Working Man's Burbon

[HO455]

The WMB suffered another failure of the electric fuel pump. This the third time in the 55k miles I've put on it. The pump the PO installed lasted 36k. The new replacement Mallory 110 lasted about 15k. The Mallory 140 I rebuilt just failed after about 4k. Every failure has been due to a seized lower bearing. The first rebuild kit I bought was around $43. I just priced one and they are now $145!

Apparently Mallory has decided rebuild kits must be worth 1/2 the price of a new pump. For that price the bearing quality had better have significantly improved. For me there is no guarantee that is in fact the case so I have converted the WMB back to a mechanical fuel pump.

The first step was to remove the pump and redo the plumbing. Photos one and two. Since I wasn't using the gearotor pump I also removed the filter I had in front of the pump.

I got a new pump and the pump push rod. I spent the extra coin to get the ARP version of the push rod after reading a fair amount of reviews saying the cheaper Delco push rods were rusty. The basic Carter pump and I was good to go, or so I thought...

I didn't realize that Chevies use a spacer plate between the pump and the block. It was too late to run to the parts store for one and I wasn't too excited about paying $14 bucks for one. So I took the chrome block off plate and and after some measuring I machined a slot in it and Presto a pump spacer!

The rest was a straightforward pump installation with a side of bending a bit of tubing to hook the output to the existing line to the fuel pressure regulator. Not that I need the regulator but it was convenient for the short term.