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Fuel pump rod worn after 600 miles. Angry enough to go to an electric pump

frankie79

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My newly rebuilt 440, broken in correctly (yes, zinc), just quit on my son while driving. No fuel in the bowls. Removed the stock replacement fuel pump and found the fuel pump rod cupped on one end and shows wear on the other. The length of the rod is down about .2 of and inch. The rod was purchased at Jegs stating it was hardened and USA made. I searched BBO and found others with the same issue with pump rods worn quickly. Motor sounded great the day before and showed very good oil pressure. I may drop the pan before restarting but am overthinking putting another mechanical pump back on and having possibly more metal in my motor if it fails. I took a pump rod out of my parts 440 that looks like an original Mopar part and measures spot on, it shows very slight wear (shine) on the ends. I've used electric pumps on my race car and am leaning toward putting one on this street cruiser. The chance of putting more metal in the engine and the chance of a "fool me twice" mistake are pushing me electric. Appreciate any input.
 
I too have heard of the aftermarket rods failing and the problem was solved by installing a factory fuel pump rod. I just placed a replacement engine in my car and was going to order a new rod but after hearing about the problems I just switched out the rod from my old engine.
 
Wonder if you took an after market pushrod to a heat treat shop And have them measure the Rockwell on it. They could harden up more if they're nice they would know how hard to make it. If someone would check the Rockwell on a factory rod it would help. If they induction hardened just the ends it would take 10 minutes.
 
Happened to me. Its NOS or nice used only for now on.
 
Never had an original fail.... New ones seem to have a very high failure rate.... Use the old one & don't look back...
 
I have an electric fuel pump

came with the car when i bought it.
It was noisy really noisy! but I relocated it in front of the fuel tank and re attached it using some rubber from an exhaust hanger that I bought since it’s thick and heavy duty and that made it real quiet, so quiet sometimes I forget to turn it on ( it has a on n off switch for theft) but I really like it.
Always starts on the first crank.
 
I think this Howard's (bottom push rod) made it 500 miles. NOS or used if they measure ok (3.220) only!
20200513_122830.jpg
 
That's a good point. I do get low fuel bowl levels when the car is sitting for a month and have to crank her a bit. The electric would cure that.
 
I've had no trouble with the hardened ones Hughes sells. Be sure to NOT get a bronze-tipped rod unless you're using a roller cam (steel core).
 
Seems like all the new ones are no good. I had heard that Mancini's were the best so I tried one of them a couple years ago. Pulled it out to check the length after a couple hundred miles and was shocked how much was already gone. Got lucky and found a couple NOS peices on Ebay and run those now.
 
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