Trouble fitting replacement Tii fuel pump

[bill_oleary]

Hope you can tell me what I might be doing wrong...

Had the original fuel pump on my '73 tii go bad (leaking from electrical connector). Read the threads and decided to go with the retrofit outlined by Keith Kreeger in this forum using the 5 series Bosch pump.

One problem noted in the procedure is that the new pump outlet is at the end of the pump body, not off the side like the original. The author recommended turning the new pump around so the inlet from the tank is toward the rear of the car, with the outlet toward the front and re-routing the outlet hose to the cannister.

I tried this, but found that having the large inlet hose toward the rear would cause it to touch the rotating flange on the differential. I noticed the picture of his car showed it to be a '74 or later, so is there perhaps a difference in the spacing around the pump vs. that on a '73?

So I had to install it the original way, with the inlet hose facing forward. But even having the smaller outlet hose facing the rear, that hose is still within about 1/4 inch of the rotating differential flange -- too close for comfort given that the pump has some movement on its rubber mounts and the differential undoubtedly moves some since the diff. carrier also has rubber mounts to the body. I tried sliding the pump in the bracket as far forward in the car as I could and still get the inlet hose on, but the outlet hose clearance is still too tight.

Any suggestions? Have others found a way to work around this? Or am I doomed to pay Mesa either $750 for a new pump or even $550 for a rebuild? Thx.

[jgerock]

This is the pump I got from Mesa a couple years ago to replace my original tii pump. I think it is originally an E21 booster pump.

I had to modify the tii mounting bracket

Since it was longer than the original pump, I also had to modify the original body mounts to get it away from the inboard CV joint. Note how close the supply line is to the right hard brake line.

This one was eventually replaced by an E30 318i in-tank pump after some troubleshooting that led to some bad ignition wires (electrical not fuel-related).

[bill_oleary]

Thanks very much for the info and the photos. I can see that yours worked better than the Bosch pump because yours has a right angle banjo fitting at the end, helping to get the hose from the pump to the cannister farther away from the rotating flange for the wheel shaft.

I'm still hoping someone who did use the Bosch pump I have will clue me in as to how they made it work without such a hard right turn for the hose at the end (the fitting on the Bosch pump is molded plastic, not something that can be unscrewed and re-fitted with a right-angle fitting of any kind).

[OriginalOwner]

Bill,

I did the Kreeger upgrade 2 years ago ..... I used lots and lots of fuel hose to keep the tight bends out of it, both on the input and output lines.

Then used lots and lots of tie wraps to hold everything up and out of the way so nothing would sag down.

AND, the Bosch fuel pump does not have a screen filter on the input (at least mine didn't). In the input line I added a filter.

Cheers,

Carl

[lilmo]

$750 over 150K miles. WAY cheaper than new tires.

[bill_oleary]

Thanks again to both additional responders...

Carl, I hear you about the added fuel line length, etc. but even with everything securely tied up and out of the way, that end fitting on the pump to which attaches that (now long) line to the cannister is still uncomfortably close to the diff. flange. Did you ever see any evidence of yours hitting that rotating shaft at any time?

Would be grateful to any others who've used this pump and found some way to increase that clearance that I've missed. If not, guess I'll have to eat the $150 or so already spent for the pump, hoses, etc. and look for an alternative...

On the one from Mesa, perhaps $750 doesn't seem bad when amortized over the mileage/age of the car, but still... $750 for a pretty basic fuel pump?? I thought I saw a posting from someone saying they got the correct configuration from Mesa for more like $275, but all I see on their web site is the $750 number. Anyone come up with an alternate source since?

Thanks again to all for any suggestions.

[OriginalOwner]

Bill,

I keep a regular eye on everything, especially all the tie wraps, don't want those to break and everything drop down. So far, so good.

(now that I think of it, I'll add some baling wire wraps as backup to the nylon tie wraps ..... no repair job on a 39 year old car can be properly complete without some baling wire somewhere).

No problems with any fuel lines touching any rotating parts. I found there to be "plenty" of clearance, so I'm having trouble visualizing your situation.

Also, I decided to further protect the fuel lines by running them inside lengths of bicycle inner tube, one of those thick-wall "puncture proof" versions. Adds another layer of abrasion resistance (and peace of mind) from rocks and such.

Just for reference, here is my final report when I completed the installation:

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component/option,com_forum/Itemid,57/page,viewtopic/t,353238

And more general tii fuel pump info here:

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component/option,com_forum/Itemid,57/page,viewtopic/t,351937

Cheers,

Carl