Re: alfa-digest V7 #978

["Jay Mackro" <jmackro@domain.elided>]

David Partridge had asked:

>Spica experts, HELP!
>My 76 spider has started to wink at me with the fuel pressure light.
>I replaced the main fuel filter last nite and thought I had solved
>the problem but after 10 min. of running it began to blink again
>under hard acceleration. 

David:

Yea, my '76 spider did that too, although when the light came
on, the engine lost power, so it definitely wasn't just a faulty
pressure sensing switch.  Mine just did it when the car was
fully warmed up, and more often on hot days when the tank
was less than half full - so I attributed it it vapor lock.  I replaced 
all of the fuel filters, the pump, ...   Since it was an intermittant 
problem, with every "fix" I assumed that I had finally solved it, 
only to have the car lose power on the next hot day.

My most recent fix - and I have no idea if this has solved it once
and for all - was to re-locate the rear fuel filter to just ahead of
the fuel pump inlet.  This eliminated one of the up-down
circuits in the plumbing between the tank and the pump, and
hopefully, reduces the vacuum that the pump needs to pull
in order to draw fuel from the tank.  This involved re-bending
the rigid fuel line that formerly went from the filter outlet
to the pump inlet (and that now goes from the tank outlet
to the fuel filter inlet).  

I was able to drive the car back and forth to the National
Convention in Kansas City with no problems, but as with
all intermittant problems, I really don't know if it's solved
for good.

Regards

Jay

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