Fuel Pump Trouble

There's a problem with some replacement fuel pumps that left my TR3 dead on the side of the road several of summers ago. I didn't have a camera with me (pre- smart phone), but I did have a spare fuel pump with me so a ride on the wrecker was averted. I knew it would only be a matter of time before I ran across another one, and sure enough a willing subject soon presented itself at the shop. This next car was in for some other problem and still running, but since the problem with my own TR3, I know what to look for and I make it a habit to check whenever I'm under a bonnet. You should too, unless you carry a spare fuel pump and enjoy making repairs along the side of the road! The problem is that the pivot pin which holds the arm into the pump will work loose and allow the arm to stop pumping fuel. This is on most if not all of the replacement pumps which DO NOT have a priming lever, because they were assembled without any kind of clip or distortion to hold the rod into the fuel pump. It simply slides in and remains in place by shear luck! If you take a quick glance at the two nuts which hold the fuel pump to the engine, and see any part of a round pin in the vicinity of the nuts (as shown by the arrow in this first photo), failure could be just a few miles away! This one moved forward, and the one that failed on my own car moved to the rear, so look at both sides! This photo is a view from down low on the side (this engine is out of the car). No doubt about it, this pin is working it's way out. You can see from the exposed end of the pin that there's no provision for a retaining clip, and the end of the pin has not been 'staked' or distorted to keep it in place. View from inside the fuel pump, and you can almost see that the 'rear' end of the pin has already disappeared into the actuation arm. It won't be long before it pops out the other side and the fuel pump stops pumping immediately, which also means that the “Joyous Triumph Noise” will stop coming out of your tailpipe! Here's a new reproduction fuel pump from Moss (377- 000) with the priming lever. Look closely and you can see that the ends of the pin have a hex shape to engage the priming lever, and have been staked to hold the priming lever in place. This also offers the added benefit of trapping the pivot pin in the pump, and eliminating the possibility of this type of failure. If you have a fuel pump without a priming lever, I recommend replacing your pump with one of these at your earliest convenience. It looks original, and you can use it to pump the carbs full of fuel before starting whenever the car has sat in your garage unused for more than a few days!