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Friday, June 16, 2017

427 Cobra - We Must Have Fuel!

The ol' dude called it quits on the road the other night.  Luckily, it was close to home.  I had a sneaking suspicion that it was fuel related, but was hoping for something less complicated.  You know, like a loose wire.  Nope.  Never easy.
I turned on all applicable devices, and everything worked.  What was missing?  That annoying little fuel pump whine.  Ok, so it's just a fuse or a relay, right?  Ha, ha, the Cobra just laughs.  After crawling under this awesome but painfully tight dash, the fuses were all ship-shape. 
Ah, the fuel cell.  It's an aluminum work of art.  But it's super simple, too.  Hose brings gas in.  Return line brings it back when it's shut off.  Wiring goes to gas gauge.  Oh, that gas gauge that doesn't work?  The same one that has caused me to be stranded twice?  More on that in a minute.
Inline fuel pump, underneath and ahead of the Corvette suspension.  A tap with a hammer and then...buzzzzzzz!  Perfect.  After coming to life for about 10 seconds, it stopped again.  That gave the me the definitive answer that the pump had finally given up.  We have our culprit.  Only, this pump has been out of production for a while.  That means one thing:  expensive if you can find one.  I did.  And, it is.
A side benefit to this is, for grins, I added a little extra current to the sending unit.  Wonders never cease, and the gauge sprang to life.  And, there is a full tank of gas waiting to spill on me when I change the pump!  Excellent.
The fact that this thing is 20 years old and is in such solid shape brings me joy.  Crawling under it today made me appreciate how well it's made and how little wear the ol' dude has on him.

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