My Hilux died :(

[Old Techo]

Today, for the first time in 27 years, my old Hilux let me down

I had a very important first-visit with a Plastic Surgeon to examine a Melanoma (a rare cancer) on the tip of my ear. I thought it was another BCC. This cancer invades soft muscles.

Anyhow my Hilux travelled from home as normal for about 4kms then fairly quickly died. It seemed like a fuel problem. I rolled to a stop and rang my wife for an urgent Uber and she dutifully got me to the Doc just on time 😊

Back home I packed some tools and a spare fuel filter (plan A) but also packed my decade’s old push/pull-bar (plan B) on the roof of the Prado.

Despite the Hilux being a 1996 model it has done only 140k.

Back at the dead Hilux site I replaced the fuel filter but the engine only ran for about 10 seconds… so plan B enacted.

When I bought the Prado new in 2007 one of the first things I did was to make and fit a front tow-bar. This was intended to manipulate the caravan in tight places. Today it was great to have to push home the Hilux. What I would have hated was use of a tow-rope with my wife having no experience and neither the power steering or brake booster working for her. With my push-bar I was safely able to push her around and controlling all accelerating and braking.   She only had to steer 😊

I’ve never worked on the Hilux engine but the fuel lines were not hard to follow. I attached a piece of hose (in a bottle) to the pump output and then cranked the engine for 30 seconds. Not a drip of petrol emerged.

Next I made up another hose with a small funnel attached and connected it directly to the carby. I tipped in maybe a half a cup of petrol for a gravity feed. The engine ran nicely for about 60 seconds before the fuel was used. Even with the engine running there was still not a drop of petrol in the catching bottle from the pump output.

A dead fuel pump seemed odds on so I removed it and on the bench I could not feel any inlet ‘suck’ with my finger tip whilst rocking the pump actuator.

I Googled and found this… Online Parts

I then rang my mate who owns an auto-store and he will have a ‘Goss’ brand in by tomorrow arvo. It is twice the price of the above one but I prefer it.

For the ‘youngies’ John Goss was a well known V8 racer in the good old days

[legendts]

Sounds at least like a quick and easy fix OT.

[nsgnomad]

'Oh, what a feeling.....'

[Old Techo]

Just finished fitting the new John Goss fuel pump and to quote Superman...

... Up, Up and Away

[nsgnomad]

Here's to the next 27 years.

[jr]

Great result OT,
So you actually pushed the Hilux home?
If the fuel pump uses a diaphragm could it have pumped fuel into the engine sump or it would probably have just spilt through a hole in the bottom of the pump.
With such low mileage it would be interesting to know what went wrong inside.

JR

[Old Techo]

G'day JR,

Yeah... I pushed it the 4km back home. Easily managed

Not the first time I've pushed a vehicle. Decades ago I made an A-frame and used it for towing a driver-less spare car.  On one occasion I was driving home from work (60-minute trip from the Airport and through the CBD) along a notoriously busy main route just 5 minutes south of Melbourne CBD. I'd just entered an even busier 2-lane roundabout where traffic split off to St Kilda Rd and Queens Parade, that being adjacent to what is today's Albert Park Formula One track.

I was driving my 1969 Falcon GTHO and it dropped a valve spring just as I entered the right-hand lane of said roundabout. Fearful of the valve being hammered by the piston I stopped dead blocking the right-hand lane. No vehicle hazard lights back then

This would have been around 1972 and no mobile phones. However I had a work radio that I'd built for personal use so I radioed the airport and asked them to phone my Dad at home (about 15km away) to bring out the old 1960 FB Holden Station Wagon and the A-frame. I'd made an A-frame attaching point on the FB. So Dad rocked up behind the GTHO and we connected the A-frame from the FB to the GTHO tow-bar. The gap between the two was 3 feet.  I think I still have that A-frame in a shed.

So I got into the FB and told Dad all he had to do was steer the GTHO and maybe brake (without power assist) if needed. It was a very strange feeling. Dad was just steering and I hoped he would not cut corners... whilst I was the combined rig engine, gearbox and brakes... but had to keep my hands off the steering wheel as the A-frame did all the work.   The old FB was working hard.

Re the dead Hilux pump, judging by the still quite oily actuating arm and bearing no fuel had passed by.  As a sealed unit I’d have to hacksaw it open for inspection.

I rarely look at the odometer so 140k was a guess. It is actually less than that at 123,706km since new.   Like all of us I guess age was the culprit

[jr]

Very ingenious OT,
Never seen the ‘A’ frame system used except on motor homes towing a small vehicle.

I have used a solid tow bar between towing and towed vehicle very good system only thing the person in the towed vehicle can get a bit nervy travelling so close.

Using your own homemade radio another OT only item.

Yes, I expect age probably was the fuel pumps demise.

JR

[nsgnomad]

I was a bit surprised that the fuel pump died without any warning. Of course, most cars these days have electric fuel pumps and again I expect that there would be some warning.
Having said that though, a few weeks ago my daughter's Peugeot 308 died because of a faulty fuel pump. I had driven it the evening before and there was no sign of any hesitancy or fuel starvation. Fortunately, my son came to his sister's rescue. I couldn't help because I was enroute to UK.

[Old Techo]

I found the time to cut open the pump.

You can see what it looked like as new in the earlier post link.

What I expected was a punctured diaphragm... but not so. I had wondered why there was not much force required to operate the actuating lever compared to the much harder to push new one.

In the process of hacking it apart and rotating the pump in my vice suddenly the action was much stronger. Now I conclude that the diaphragm push/pull rod had actually become disconnected from the actuating lever, thus doing nothing.   It was too difficult to open that area for investigation.

       

[jr]

At least the diaphragm rubber had not gone rotten from age.

JR

[Old Techo]

Yes JR,

It looked in excellent nick... except where I hack-sawed it.