1985-1998 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
When talk of fuel pumps comes up I like to tell my fuel pump story.
I was headed for Alaska and a contract in Anchorage. I was driving on the AlCan highway. For those who have not had that privilege, it's a VERY nice road. Mostly modern and straight with very little traffic. You can get right up to 80 easily with safety. Unfortunately every so often the road just disintegrates completely and you find yourself in a washboard sea of mud and rocks surrounded by heavy equipment. After plowing into one of these obstacles, my 1995 9K CS stopped dead in the mud. After about ten minutes she started up but would only go about 15 MPH without quitting again. I limped into a town called Desolation Bay in the Yukon Territory. There was no electricity (they had a huge generator) and no phone but there was a gas station/restaurant.
"You're in luck", the gentleman behind the counter told me. "That guy sitting over there is a mechanic and his shop is right up the hill." I talked to "that guy" and yes he was a mechanic and yes he was willing to look at my car if I could get it up the hill into his shop.
His shop was enormous. It turned out he worked on the giant road equipment used on the highway. My car was dwarfed in his shop. Unfortunately he did not have even a single wrench small enough to fit anything on the SAAB. I ended up having to hire a local gentleman to drive the 5 hours into Whitehorse to buy a set of metric wrenches. When he returned, we tried to change the fuel filter as I was convinced that the rough road has shaken enough dirt loose in my gas take to clog the filter. Nope. No so. After several more days of fooling with a car he didn't understand my mechanic friend gave up. Th SAAB would go about 15 MPH so I set off for Alaska (and my contract) at a crawl. I did not get far. At the next sea of rutted mud and rocks she quit completely and I was stranded, miles from anywhere.
There was a young woman flagger there and she offered to radio her camp who then might be able to radio my mechanic friend in Desolation Bay. She got through and after several hours of waiting, here he comes with a trailer, and we got my baby back to his shop.
The mechanic offered to tow my car back to Whitehorse where he claimed to know someone who worked on these funny foreign cars, so off we went. Towing my car, the trip took a bit more than 5 hours but we finally made it. Sure enough, the new mechanic knew right away it was the fuel pump. He put a pressure tester on it and it showed only about 15 pounds of pressure.
"I can fix that easy", he said. "I can have you a brand new pump in just a couple of weeks". Two weeks??
I had to get to Anchorage and I had to get there soon. "OK", said my new best friend and off he went with my old fuel pump to the Whitehorse Canadian Tire store where he started opening boxes until he found a fuel pump that looked like it might fit. He came back with a pump he claimed was for a Ford Ranger. He installed it and I was on my way in a coupe of hours. I beeped my horn as I passed through Desolation Bay again and that fuel pump is still in my car to this day.
Remember, a SAAB will sometimes run with a bad fuel pump but just not very fast.
posted by 71.233.249...
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