Club 80-90 Forums

after just getting the girl back from loads of service work and mot, 2 miles down the road and the fuel pump packs up.

for the sake of 20 year old fuel pipes I would say yes replace them along with the pump - the pump is about 15 mins to swap over and the fuel lines take around 40 mins...

As for reliability you need to remember these vehicles are old and generally worn and they suffer from owner after owner of
'make do an mend rather than sort the problem'
and also
'as thing costs so much I am gonna stretch that service a bit longer'

I would say to think of it more of a process of elimination - each time you fix a part them you know it should work without issue for a good while thereafter.....



Keep yer VW chin up!

Cheers Doug, i just wish i could jump in it and enjoy her rather thinking,

Mobile phone - check
Haynes manual - check
AA card - check
Breakdown sandwiches and flask - check

since buying it in august, we have been out properly about 5 times, to which everytime the AA has been out to rescue us, bad luck i think! i also have a 81 mk1 golf which is very reliable so i guess there is a balance somewhere

Anyone local to me (east sussex) fancy doing a fuel pump for a but of $$$$ ? let me know

Hi Woody
Many moons ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth I bought a camper, I really should have known better being certificated motor engineer, but I bought it. Fortunately I had the know how to fix it.
However as Dugcati says, it was a process of elimination, I replaced the bald tyres, sorted out the appaling running with a secondhand carb off a fairly new scrapper, fixed the lethal brakes and so on ad infinitum ad nauseum.
And five of us and three dogs went all over the country, climbing hillwalking and going to festivals, for two years and then I sold it to some good friends who had it for years till some idiot hit it on the M1 in bad weather.
The moral? I had two cantilever boxes of tools, a Haynes manual and the street outside to work in but I wanted to get it done. At the end of the day it was 'my' van, I had put more into it than money and I had enough great times to outweigh the grief it gave.
If you van is beset with problems are they sortable? Do you want to get it done? If so go for it. Plenty of good people on here to give help and advice, we have technology now that I was sorting out a machine in Lincolnshire from Hereford a few months back via laptop and webcam, so it doesnt matter if many o us are not local to you, although I would have thought plenty of VW in Sussex?
BTW a fuel pump is a service item, on the Bedford CF I was talking about above oil pumps were a servicable item!

thanks mate , yeah, i know once i replace everything should be ok ,If money wasnt an issue i would be very happy with it but low income and running out of funds its put a bit damper on things. I wish i was more mechanically minded and got stuck in myself , never mind hopefully i'll have a good run of luck next year

dugcati wrote:for the sake of 20 year old fuel pipes I would say yes replace them along with the pump - the pump is about 15 mins to swap over and the fuel lines take around 40 mins...

Dugati, the fuel pump on your 1.6 CT air cooled engine is conveniently situated on top of the engine just like a 1.9 DG water cooled. However, the fuel pump on a 2.0l CU air cooled engine has to be accessed from under the van as it is in an awkward place to get at........probably more than a 15 minute job!

OK I can see that throwing money at it and having to rely on paid people to fix it is a hassle, and I know what you mean about having the buzz ruined, I had a bike like that, BSA, and a boat that was just a money pit that I ended up selling at a loss without ever sailing it.
Your options are many though, one I would suggest is to get someone who really knows their way around a T25 to give you an honest appraisal of everything that needs doing, you can then price up the bits and the time. Many things are not beyond you, trust me I have trained lots of apprentices. You can then make a decision on whether to go for it, or if you have had enough then draw a line and walk away.
However if after an appraisal you feel you want to go on then there are basic courses, tools are either cheap or can be picked up secondhand, I have spanners made by snapon and spanners made by ? and they all do the same job.
So its up to you. But this site is an excellent resource and people will help even if we are a ways off.

Nurture it .....

You`ll love it and it`ll love you

Seriously the big bonus for you as with me is that its air-cooled simplicity...

Things are very doable with just a little encouragement and basic understanding of what you are dealing with

Wish you were closer and I`d take you through the process of pump and hose work (learnt and done it myself )

Cheers
Andy

whereabouts in sussex are you? I'll come have a look see..... as above said, its virtually same as my DG watercooled fuel pump. Few things need checking before going to the expense of a new unit tho, fuel pipes, blockages etc.... chin up matey.
ps - im just north of brighton....

Agree with fairwynds, might not be the pump, muck, etc.
Has it been v.low on fuel lately?
Not a big job anyway... but drain fuel through a fine sieve and see what comes out at the end, that tank was not born yesterday. Then wash it through.
Preventative maintenance is something that often suffered with past owners of VW buses, they've often been driven within an inch of their lives or neglected to within an inch of their death.. usually 2nd & 3rd owners let them go.

fairwynds wrote:whereabouts in sussex are you? I'll come have a look see..... as above said, its virtually same as my DG watercooled fuel pump. Few things need checking before going to the expense of a new unit tho, fuel pipes, blockages etc.... chin up matey.
ps - im just north of brighton....

Thanks alot ! im in no rush to get it done so if you are passing my way (telscombe cliffs / peacehaven) pop in (wife makes a super brew too!) have a look with me, that would be great!

Bowton Lad wrote:

dugcati wrote:for the sake of 20 year old fuel pipes I would say yes replace them along with the pump - the pump is about 15 mins to swap over and the fuel lines take around 40 mins...

Dugati, the fuel pump on your 1.6 CT air cooled engine is conveniently situated on top of the engine just like a 1.9 DG water cooled. However, the fuel pump on a 2.0l CU air cooled engine has to be accessed from under the van as it is in an awkward place to get at........probably more than a 15 minute job!

Might be time to consider an electric pump? (as long as it's put in properly so in the event of a smash it don't keep pumping fuel!)

Good point Doug, think we have a thread or two on substituting lecy pump on aircooleds, maybe in the Archive...

Here's some old threads on aircooleds that might help with pump, filter and tank problems to gen up on...

Yes, fit an electric...
the mech fuel pumps are obsolete in any case.. only benefit of removing is to take the pushrod out that actuates...

from: http://archive.club8090.co.uk/viewtopic ... mp#p282192

http://archive.club8090.co.uk/viewtopic ... 0&p=283181

http://archive.club8090.co.uk/viewtopic ... mp#p292424

http://archive.club8090.co.uk/viewtopic ... mp#p272439

http://archive.club8090.co.uk/viewtopic ... mp#p270539

http://archive.club8090.co.uk/viewtopic ... mp#p268897

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