180 (470) Mercruiser fuel pump

[Benny67]

Greetings,

My fuel pump on my starboard engine appears to have gone to its great reward. It will not even spit out a drop of fuel when I crank the engine with the fuel line stuck in a bottle.

A quick question that hopefully someone has an answer to,

When I change it out, other than the obvious lines and nuts that are attaching it to the block, is there anything else I need to know?

For some reason back in the day I remember changing a mechanical fuel pump and remember having to make sure a rod didn?t fall out from inside the block...I assume the rod was the device that pushed the pump in order to make it pump.

I'm assuming the foot on this pump rides directly on the camshaft and there will not be any sort of pushrod falling out when I remove the old one. I didn't see any rod on a parts list for this pump so I can assume there is no rod to speak of?

Am I correct in assuming this?

This pump is in a spot that will be difficult to get to (isn?t that always the case?) so I figured I'd rather ask a simple question rather than get a surprise.

 

[harleyman1975]

The chevy small block had the infamous rod...not sure if any other engines did or not. most ride on the camshaft. if the arm on the pump is long with a machined flat surface on the end it is a cam "rider" the chevy pump has a short stubby arm.

 

[Benny67]

ahhh...makes sense. I could have sworn it was a Chrysler engine though.

 

[stonyloam]

The only thing to worry about on a 470 fuel pump change is that on some of the new pumps the arm is too long and the pump will develop too much pressure. This is corrected by using a thicker gasket. So when you get it installed it would be a good idea to check the fuel pressure from the new pump, I think you want 3-4 psi. You can borrow the fuel test gauge from Autozone.

 

[Benny67]

I opted for a carter fuel pump instead of mercruiser or sierra...carter has been making fuel pumps since Christ was a cowboy....I hope it's not crapola