Gentlemen, the long-type fuel pump on my 65 SL113 restoration is knackered.
This car has been locked away in a Yorkshire garage for decades.
On removal of the pump from the car and scraping out the brown crispy bits (is this normal?) that had developed from the propeller-end, I managed to get the motor to turn. However, there was not much, if anything, in the way of actual pumping happening. The seals, however, seemed ok.
Removal of the top of the motor-end revealed heaps of fine soot. I trust that this is not normal. I shook most of this out onto the kitchen floor and my young nephews managed a remarkable job in evenly distributing this across the couches, carpets, curtains and cat in my house. "Has the motor burnt out?" I asked myself - "Why did it spin then, eh?"
I found out much later, and after much pain, that there was (now) nothing joining the notch in the brass fan to the motor shaft. Did I lose this when I opened the propeller-end? Was it ever in there in the first place? Who knows? There are more things between Heaven and Earth..., etc. Anyway, this is not the appropriate forum for regret and recrimination- I get plenty of that at home.
I then fashioned a tiny peg to lock the fan to motor shaft thingy from a dodgy bit of old plastic in a vain attempt to establish whether this was cause of my woes - I had planned to get something a bit more appropriate in due course, but just wanted to test the principle of the thing.
Result: the motor now refuses to spin. Un-flippin'-believable. Should I have left the sooty stuff in the motor-end bit? That's makes no sense, but I do fear I may have dislodged something when I opened up the motor-end. Whatever I have done seems to have shuffled the pump off its mortal coil apologies, couldn't resist).
Anyway, there is a point to my ramblings:
(1) Where's a good place to get the pump refurbished? I still live in vain hope that it is salvagable - am keen on keeping the bits original, if possible.
(2) Should I be bothered about point (1)? How realistic is it to achieve things "as they were, where they were", in practice?
(3) Where can I get any suitable pump from that will work until I can get this one refurbished.
and
(4) Should I just go out and get a replacement one from an official Mercedes source now and just move on with my life?
Many thanks,
Tabby
