Help I think we have had enough

[rob8624]

Your Westy looks very, very, nice! Best of luck with getting all the niggly things sorted out, i'm sure everything will be fine!

 

[TakeLifeEasy]

Well, just when you think you are getting somewhere....... :evil: Just got the campervan back with a shiny new fuel pump so I thought I would give it a run to test it. Pulled away and the power was just not there, felt like a spark plug had come off. Checked the spark plugs and all seem OK although with twin carbs, it is certainly a challange getting to the back ones. After about 1 mile the van died. However, as if by magic, the guy that fitting the fuel pump drove past. We ended up pushing it back to his place and he is going to take a look at it tomorrow. With only 2 days before we go on holiday, it does not fill me with any confidence as we have not had one good day with it for weeks..........when will ths end :roll:

Just wondering if the fuel pump is not letting enough fuel into the engine or maybe the spark plug has been knocked.

 

[froggy]

Any updates?
Hopefully the guy fitting the Fuel pump connected the pipes the right way, its easy to get them wrong (i know )

 

[TakeLifeEasy]

Bad news I am afraid, we have not been able to get the van going so we have had to can the holiday to Devon…not a good start to our first holiday in the van. Each evening we have been lead to believe our van would be back and each evening we have been disappointed. The van seem to run for a few minutes then stalls. It has never done this before and we have only had this since a new fuel pump was fitted so I am assuming the fuel pump is starving the twin carbs of fuel? We are so sick and tired of waiting, we have brought the van back home and yet again, we have a van on the drive that is not going anywhere.
Still, we are not down beaten yet. The plan now is to ship the van off to Grahams at Early Midland Bay to have this problem sorted and make a few other improvements. Hopefully after all that we should have sorted out all the teething problems once and for all and begin to start to use the van. We know there are going to problems in the future and I think we have just been unlucky with our mechanic. So we have learnt that until we have more knowledge, we need the van to go back to a VW specialist. Once we have the van back from Grahams , and now we have out new Bentley VW manual, we intend to perform our own servicing etc so we can begin our sharp learning curve getting our own hands dirty!

We are still hanging on in there……....just!

froggy, could the above be the pipes the wrong way round?

 

[Bundy]

Just thinking out loud...as I'm not sure it'd even run, but there are 2 different lengths of pin/shaft that drives the fuel pump. I know that when I put a new pump on mine when I did the alternator I had to get a new pin to go with it as it was different....
Good luck in sorting
Cheers
Al

 

[ozziedog]

I just can`t believe the crap you`re getting, all the things that have happened to you are about 5 years worth in one dollop, :roll: I think you`re on the right boat now by letting Grahams gang have a good sort out for you, and that should sort out all the niggles,, (like not going). :lol:

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,, I will 100% guarantee it`ll get better, (can`t get any worse),, 8)

 

[TakeLifeEasy]

Thanks guys. Its funny, we brought a van knowing we would have problems but did not expect so many so soon. The dumb thing is, I do not think it has anything to do with the van itself, it is all to do with the person working on it. Still, we have learnt our lessen and like I said above, it is going to go off to Grahams to get sorted out so we should be back on the road real soon. Then when we are on the road, we need to get ourselfs to an event on the Earlybay line up as we now have our Earlybay sticker in the van (the very first sticker)!

 

[john the horse]

well sounds like you doing ok , we havent got a sticker well no an EB one, :mrgreen:

 

[gninnam]

Feel for you regarding the cancelled holiday

But Graham will get it sorted (hope the cost to get it sorted will not dampen your spirits even further)

Fingers crossed for you

 

[Geeze]

Sorry to hear about the holiday they can certainly pick their moments.

Running for a few minutes or just a mile sounds like it's just running on what's in the float until it's empty.
Hopefully should be something cheap and easy to sort out (too short pushrod or blocked filter?).

And take heart, it's not even Easter yet, there's a whole summer ahead!

 

[Grazzer]

Just a quick suggestion re your fuel pump issue - try replacing the fuel line from the tank to the pump - by changing the old one, you could have split/disturbed the pipe - I had exactly the same problem with a bus, strangely, it came from the same place as yours in the US!

 

[creationblue]

Its an easy mistake with the fuel pump, even did it myself, the original inlet is on the bottom where as the new one has the inlet on the top. I put these on the wrong way and you dont pump any fuel so when the fuel in your carb float chamber runs out, you stop :lol: luckily i ran mine on the drive.........As for the pushrod that comes with it, use the wrong one and you split the diapham and petrol comes out the little hole in the pump.........i found that out the hard way too :lol:

Just

 

[TakeLifeEasy]

We just go back from a holiday in Cornwall.....drove to a holiday cottage in a reliable Toyota......sorry guys but we needed a brake from our campervan after having to cancel our drip in it down to Devon. Still, the brake did us good as we saw a few ealrybays in Cornwall and have come back with a whole load of enthusiasm to get us on the road.

Many thanks for all the suggestions regarding the fuel pump. I intend to run the van tomorrow and trace the problem.

 

[gninnam]

Glad you had a good holiday and I am also glad you have renewed your enthusiasm towards the van

 

[uber cool]

as others have said suspect the fuel pumps have 2 different length pushrods, ones approx 100mm and the other 108mm (or something like that) you might have replaced a pump needing the shorter rod with one needing the longer rod, so its not pumping enough fuel into the carbs other than to tick over. Unbolt the pump (2 x m8 nuts- need a 13mm spanner) lift up the pump and and see if the pushrod is sticking proud of the gasket block,

look here on vw hertiage
http://www.vwheritage.com/vw_parts_Fuel-Pump_act_page.render_pageID_276_lang_EN_country_GB.htm

they list the pumps as dynamo and alternator pumps, that's only for clearance issues both will fit a dynamo engine, its important to make sure you have the correct pump with the correct pushrod. Or else it wont deliver enough fuel. Ironically twin carbs need only apporx 2pis of fuel, sometimes you can have a problem with a pump delivering too much fuel and casue it to cut out.

More importantly get a new mechanic!

 

[TakeLifeEasy]

Thanks for the feedback. When I spoke to Graham last, he mentioned about the push rods so it sounds like the problem. I started it up yesterday and it dies after about 3 minutes on idle.

 

[uber cool]

just looked at your photos, I like the interior, who did that for you? we need ares recovering soon

 

[TakeLifeEasy]

uber cool,

Mark from Morcambe & Wize did the whole resto including the interior.

 

[TakeLifeEasy]

uber cool,

Going back to the fuel pump, is it a matter of taking of the fuel pump off, replacing the push rod and fitting it back on? Just wondering if a complete novice could do this?

 

[TakeLifeEasy]

Just found this on the internet.....I know I need to start to get my hands dirty but am wondering if this is the best thing to start with -
http://www.vw-resource.com/fuel_pump.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;