Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Branches Southeast Help With Fuel Pump?

The fuel pump should take less than 4 hours if you've never done it before. Pretty straight-forward:

1. Remove rear lower seat cushion
2. Snip access
3. remove retaining ring (this is the most difficult part, a little penetrating oil helps a lot)
4. Pull pump assembly from tank
5. Pull pump from bracket
6. Shove new pump into bracket
7. R-insert assembly into tank
8. Button up

I don't like sharp edges, so after I bent the access flaps back I covered all my little cuts with duct tape and re-installed the giant rubber grommet that goes over top. Easy - really.

Two notes:

1. Get a nice pair of snips at Home Depot. Under $20 and make the cutting job VERY easy & neat.
2. I had never done this in a Contique and finished the job in good time - with breaks.

You guys make this sound like an easy job.

I remember about 2yrs ago I was going to replace the pump, but decided on just doing filter and new plugs/wires. I cut out the hole a bit, but never removed the assembly. I've read the how-to several times and it seems straight forward. Anyone run into any weird / odd problems removing the assembly? Any bizzare tools needed to do the job?
Thanks for all the replies -- keep 'em coming!

Tim

Bizzare tools? I used dental floss to swap trunk lids.

Dental floss to swap trunk lids... I'm curious to know how that worked out. Dental floss is good for removing car emblems and dealership advertisements. It's also good for removing pork chop from between the teeth.

I'm going to try removing the fuel pump assembly tomorrow. I'll post my progress as I break stuff that isn't meant to be broken.

Tim

Take your time the first time AND DO NOT LOSE THE RETAINING CLIP!!!! Be very careful when taking it off, it will fly!

AFter you do it once or twice, you can get it done in about 45-60 minutes easily.

Also, taking off the plastic engine (IMRC) cover does help quite a bit!

Okay, I just finished doing what I wanted to try. I removed the assembly, took off the exterior filter and cleaned the interior filter sock. The sock definitely looked pretty dirty. It had lots of black stuff all over it and the assembly had some crud in it as well. I decided to just clean everything up and see if it makes a difference. If the car runs fine, I'll wait before replacing pump. If car runs the same or worse, I'll just throw a new assembly in there.

From start to finish, including all cleanup of tools etc, it took me about 2hrs. Not too bad I think. The hardest parts were removing the fuel line and putting the green gasket on there without it slipping off. Overall, it was a fairly simple job. I ended up cutting the hole bigger and working it from the top. Afterwards, I bent the tabs back (some parts i actually cut out) and lined it all with a few layers of electrical tape, to cover all the sharpies.
I started the car up and let it idle for about a minute. I'll wait for all the gas vapors and such evaporate for a little while, before taking her for a test drive.

Thanks for all the good info! Guess that means I'll be enjoying homemade cookies, pizza, and the beverage of my choice by myself.

Tim

Well, the results are in . . .

Took the car for a test drive. I think there's another problem other than the fuel pump. The car pulls hard above 4k, but i still get some bucking and hesistation up until the secondaries open up. It seems to happen more when throttle is more than 50%. Definitely does it with open throttle, atleast until about 4k, then it runs smooth.

Any ideas what would cause the problems at lower rpm's? The car has 72k. I replaced plugs, wires, coil pack 2 or so yrs ago, might be 2.5yrs. I don't think they are causing the bucking problem. Would a dirty maf cause this? I don't get check engine lights or anything. Because the car does run smooth at higher rpms, I'm thinking it's not a fuel problem.

... Strange indeed!

Tim

Serves you right for eating all my cookies...


Try checking out your Throttle Position Sensor (TPS). I think the Haynes manual might have a proceedure, or you can wait for a reply from a more knowledgable CEGer, or even search. I'm sure it's there somewhere.