Hello,

As I work my way through the restoration, I have come up with a strange issue. The fuel pump on my 82 K-Jet puts out a steady tone. The tone is about 1kc and starts after the car runs for about 5 mins. The car runs great and the pre-pump seems to be doing it's job, but the sound is very annoying. Has anyone ever had the pump make that kind of noise before it went south. Very strange.

Mario

I wish my fuel pump sounded that nice, instead of groaning and buzzing like a dying insect.
--
Drive it like you hate it

But can it sing a good Puccini aria?

Only in Alto!

Do you hear this sound even when the car's not moving???

The 1 kHz thing sounds a bit like a howling d-shaft center support bearing, but they only whine when they spin.

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Don Foster (near Cape Cod, MA)

Don,

The tone is constant and not related to movement. It only follows pump operation. If you turn ignition key off then on the tone follows the pulse of the fuel pump relay and then stops.

Mario

Whew!

A singing fuel pump is a new one to me.

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Don Foster (near Cape Cod, MA)

A few years ago, My daughter drove an'82 240. The fuel pump went bad in this car (two times) and she would identify the sound as 'an old man growling' in the back seat. Maybe he took singing lessons and has moved on to another 200.

Good luck,

Dan

Yeah, they do growl when they get old. But a 1 kHz whine isn't a growl.

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Don Foster (near Cape Cod, MA)

Dan52:"she would identify the sound as 'an old man growling' in the back seat. "
Don Foster:"Yeah, they do growl when they get old."
Don, I presume you're talking about yourself, aren't you? I've noticed on occasion, that I've started to do a bit of groaning myself.
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1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb and M46 trans

Maybe my daughter was talking about me also. I tend do to get a little grumpy once in a while. My daughters, 21 and 24 years old, and I have evolved into a pretty good state of equilibrium. It works like this: They do exactly what they want and tell me exactly what I want to hear. Everybody gets to be happy this way.

By the way I use trafic as a personal barometer. I have concluded that if I must yell or gesture at more than one knucklehead a day, I am ready for an attitude adjustment. I am getting too old to worry myself about some SUV-driving-high-maintenance-princess-soccer-mom (on her cell phone) cutting me off just so she can get home and whine at her husband.

The pump on my '82 (almost 350k miles) growled right to the day the car died a rusty death.

A few times the pump stopped running altogether, but a good whack with a hammer encouraged it to again growl.

Kinda like wife 'n daughter, a good verbal whack always helped.

Does that soulnd like I'm growling?

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Don Foster (near Cape Cod, MA)

"The pump on my '82 (almost 350k miles) growled right to the day the car died a rusty death."
Ohh. Then you WERE talking about pumps growling when they get old, rather then men growling/groaning/moaning when they get old.
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1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb and M46 trans

I'm gettin' kinda rusty, too.....

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Don Foster (near Cape Cod, MA)

If I had to list the important things in life that I learned from my mother, one of them is that a Kjet fuel pump sometimes requires a tap with a hammer to get going again.

Thanks mum.
--
Drive it like you hate it

I wonder if the fuel pump is transmitting a vibration through the chassis, and that is actually what you hear. Check the pump under the car to see that it is mounted properly. Just an idea.

I have checked the pump mounting and all looks OK. The pump is an electric motor of sorts and may have a worn or dry bearing, which could be causing the noise. Since the pump runs at a constant speed the noise will stay constant. I have a new pump coming and was going to change it as a matter of course (24yrs and 120k miles). When it is out I will perform an autopsy. Thanks for all the help.

Mario