In this brief post, we will cover the installation of the aftermarket fuel pump on the FMT. If you recall, I had to modify the sending unit assembly on the front fuel tank since I removed the in-tank fuel pump due to the fact that it will pump at too high pressure for the simple carbureted system. While the sending unit has been retained sans pump, I still would have to add an external electric fuel pump in the fuel system to supply fuel to the carburetor.
The obvious answer is to add a generic aftermarket fuel pump, the same that's used on the Elco, the same used on the Dodge, as well as the Monte Carlo. These little fuel pumps are pretty affordable, clanky and pump with a decent enough pressure and volume to supply most street carburetors. The pump kit comes with a bracket to hang the pump anywhere a hole exists to hold the single bolt that would hold the bracket in place. A pair of short hoses also come with the kit, as well as hose clamps. Hose barbs and an in-line fuel filter are included to assemble the pump package and install wherever you may need it. When it comes to a typical automotive installation its best to install these pumps as close to the fuel tank as possible in order to lessen the strain the pump will go through to draw fuel up from the tank. Installing the pump at the engine will cause the pump to go through undue strain and fail prematurely. In the case of the FMT, there's a perfect spot on the frame rail just forward of the fuel tank where I routed the fuel line alongside the brake line. In this area the wire harness that connected to both fuel sending unit/pumps as well as the rear lights runs right along with the fuel and brake lines, plus there's a couple of holes in the frame. This makes things perfect for the installation of our fuel pump. After assembling the in-line filter and hose barbs, I wrapped the bracket around the pump and hung the unit to one of the holes on the frame rail. With the pump hung, I pulled a red wire and the black wire from the wire bundle. There were two red wires in the bundle, well red-ish. Mainly red with a stripe, either one feeding the front or rear pump assemblies. The black wire was of course the ground. The other wires would be for the sending units themselves and the lights. I snipped a red wire to route to the fuel pump then used a splice connector to tap into the ground wire. At the fuel pump itself i used a two-terminal male/female plug to connect the fuel pump's wires to the red wire and to a short piece of black wire that was then connected to the splice terminal on the main black wire. Once that was all done, I cut a section of the fuel line based on the position of the hose barbs. I wanted to leave a small gap between the ends of the hose barbs and the ends of the fuel line after cutting out the section. I could then easily install the short pieces of hose with the clamps to couple the fuel pump assembly to the ends of the fuel line. With the fuel pump installed completely, the only thing left to do is go to the dash where the fuel tank selector switch was at and find which of the output lines will feed power to our fuel pump. This will be as simple as trying to fully identify the stripe color on the red wire going to the fuel pump then match it to the plug in the dash. From there I have to find which wire is feeding 12v to the outputs. Lastly, I have to install a jumper between the 12v power feed wire and the output to confirm that the power is reaching the pump. Once that's all done, I can say the fuel system, short of the carburetor, is done.
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