Club 80-90 Forums

Hi all just had my local garage fit a JK electric fuel pump for a 2lt CU air-cooled with the pressure regulator etc. Just picked the bus up and couldn't even get up the hill to get out of the town - struggling in 1st gear!
The engine revs okay which is why the mechanic didn't take it out for a test drive...the setting on the regulator is set to 1 which is for 4 cylinder engines.

Anyone have any ideas as to why there is absolutely no power when I put my foot down. Before the mechanical fuel pump went a couple of days ago there were no problems what-so-ever.

...any ideas however crazy will be looked into!!!

The mechanic is going to:-
Check to see if the positive wire is the correct voltage.
Check to see if the chokes are working properly.

Apart from those two things what else can we do?

Before the original fuel pump 'failed' the engine was fairly okay doing 30mph up hills and 60mph on the flat - I don't have any heat exchange boxes or J tubes so there might be a little loss of power etc due to the exhaust fumes coming out of three different place...but it was able to go up hills.

I've read about air leaks, carb settings, setting the fuel pressure regulator to 3 ...some say 1 and some say don't use them at all because they are calibrated to BAR and not PSI, timing etc etc would any of those effect the engine so drastically from 3 days ago when the bus was working fine to not working or at least not being able to get out of 1st gear or go up the slightest incline without the bus stalling?

All I know is that I've had two reconditioned engines in this bus and I don't need any more hassle. I just want to be able to get from A 2 B !

Please help...any advice warmly welcomed.

Hi,

If it worked with mechanical pump then clearly the leccy pump is to blame.

According to the JK website, the pump delivers fule at 0.42 bar (which converts to 5.8 PSI).

Your engine needs fuel at about 3 PSI, so you need a regulator to reduce the pressure, to stop the carbs constantly being under pressure, which will knacker various bits....

However, the JK website is rather vague about the regulator - it suggests that poisition 1 is 1 bar, (or 14 PSI), which is twice what the pump can actually deliver, so not convinced this is right! There is no indication what other numbers appear on the dial, or what they correspond to. If you have numbers less than 1 on the dial, I would try turning you regulator to about 0.25 and see how that goes.

Alternatively give JK a ring, and ask how the product they sold you works (although, be warned, they probably won't know!)

Or, given that you paid the garage, ask them to sort it out, it is after all their problem!!

Good luck,

Cheers,

Alex

The regulator is marked in PSI and should be set to 3 PSI.

Many thanks for the reply. All is now okay...it appears that the RAC man, when he was trying to work out what was wrong, cut off the fuel to the left carb by fiddling with the mixture screw. The garage has re-set the screw to where it should be and the bus now runs sweet.