Leaking SU fuel pump

I took my E-Type out for a couple of drives this week.   The state of NSW has been in lockdown due to COVID19 since March.   Until last week, it was illegal to be out and about without a valid excuse.    This precluded the use of the E-Type as unlike some of the more modern cars it isn’t so suitable to use to do a shopping run.   For starters the boot is minute and the car doesn’t like stop/go traffic very much.

On the first drive, I noticed a bit of a fuel smell.  It seemed like it was coming from the front of the car, so I spent quite a bit of timing examining the fuel connections to each of the three carbies to see if there was any dripping.   There wasn’t.    The other night I took the car on an extended 150km drive up to Gosford via the old Pacific Highway.  On the way back, I could start to smell the fuel again.    Just in the time it took me to open up the roller door. I saw dripping from the back of the car.

Looking in the boot, it was obvious that I had a leaking SU fuel pump.   It was almost raining fuel down inside the boot.   I wonder if this started this week or if it has leaking a little bit for a while.   As I drive the car with the roof down most of the time, it is possible that I may not have noticed some minor fuel smell.

Today I went back to have more of a look and remove the fuel pump.  It is only a 15-20 minute job to remove it.    Firstly the two fuel lines are removed.   I marked them top and bottom to make re-assembly easier.   I was surprised to see two washers per fuel line.    Then, the power and ground can be disconnected.   There is a fair amount of room to get a hand into the rear wing where the fuel pump is located.

Finally, the three nuts that hold in the pump and its bracket can be removed.   While it does not seem like it, it is actually fairly easy to get a hand around behind the pump and remove the rear nut.   I made a mistake in removing the front two nuts first.   It would have been easier to remove the rear one.   The pump is mounted to the car body through rubber mounts.   One of mine was completely perished (probably accelerated by the fuel) and the other two do not look far behind.

Looking carefully, I can see some plastic or rubber debris in the outlet pipe.  Probably the remains of a perished gasket or diaphragm.     In addition, the leaking fuel has dissolved some kind of black sealing material that has been used in the body of the car.   There is black residue in the spare tyre well that I will need to clean up.

The pump leaking SU fuel pump in my car is the original points type.   Specifically it is an AUF303.   It must have been rebuilt when the car was restored.  This pump is now known as the AZX1307.    There is now a fully electric replacement available, or the rebuild kit EPK300 can be used to rebuild it.

I have not yet decided if I will rebuild the pump I have or move to the fully electronic version.    It looks like an all new pump is about 3x the cost of a rebuild kit.