TBI

[carnuck]

Running HO EFI is easiest I've found. Do head swap anyways.

[Alcoatari]

OKAY, so here is what I came up with for my in tank fuel pump / fuel sending unit.

I am not trying to hijack this thread, but a few of you guys gave me some great advice concerning this device, and I wanted to share my experience in order to possibly help someone else along.

First, I bought a fuel sending unit for a 76-87 CJ. It is NOT the same as the one from the eagle, but the lock ring and the plate have the same dimensions. Here is a pic of the kit from ebay:



Then I bought a fuel pump repair kit for an 89 Bravada/C1500/S10 also from ebay:



Total cost for the two was under $50. This is what they actually looked like:




Then, with some 7/16" steel tubing from the parts store, a couple brass compression fittings, some fuel resistant sealant (aforementioned monkey snot), I married the two. I had to cut the feed tube on the CJ sender. Total cost for me was under $70. This is nice considering the only place that sold an eagle fuel sending unit wanted over $110 and they were out of stock...

I had to bend the floater for use in the eagle tank. As for the power feed for the fuel pump, I drilled a hole in the top of the plate. For added insulation, I cut an RTV dispenser tube down to fit through the drill-hole, and ran the wire through it. I secured this on the exposed side with an ample dose of marine-weld. Then I soldered everything in place and attached my weather pack connector. This hooked up to a line I ran down the frame rail to the fuel pump signal feed from the TBI ECM. For the ground to the pump, I grounded to the inside of the plate with a female spade fitting, soldered and shrink-wrapped. Common ground with the sender circuitry, you can see this in the second pic here:








Here is the unit mostly assembled:

At this point, I soldered everything that needed soldering and shrink-wrapped everything that needed it. Make sure you give yourself enough room for the lock ring, which I have installed upside down in this picture, 
 
And this is pretty much the finished product with weatherpack and grounds visible. You can see that I added extra insulation for the hot line via a corrugated wire loom. Probably a bad idea to have electrical tape floating around in fuel, so I later zip-tied everywhere I saw tape-ends. In the future I would use self-fusing tape.

And here is a pic of the unit installed in my eagle's gas tank. You can see the fuel feed line to the left and the return line to the right, they line up very nicely with this setup. Some minor bending may be required.

And finally, with the fuel lines installed. Oh yeah, put on some safety goggles if you haven’t by now... And you're done!


I hope this helps someone. Make sure your return line is clear before installing a high pressure pump like this. Also, make sure your internal regulator can handle it, especially if you have a junkyard TBI.

I am going to run a bypass fuel pressure regulator with a gauge so I can monitor and adjust fuel pressure at my leisure. I still have some studying to do, but I think a proper setup pressure regulator can let you eliminate the internal regulator completely.

You can, of course, use your stock fuel sender. In my case, my car is over 100 miles away from where I live, so I couldn't leave my tank without something in that spot. I had to improvise so I could work on this unit remotely. I had it built before I had a chance to remove my old unit. I would probably recommend using the stock unit if you have no space or distance limitations.

Anyway, thanks for watching.

[Prafeston]

Dude, great write up! Definitely Eaglepedia material!

[Alcoatari]

Thank you, sir!

[Baskinator]

Very nice job, I am definitely going this route when I go fuel injection! Does the pump get in the way of the float at all? It looks a little close in the pictures.

[Alcoatari]

Very nice job, I am definitely going this route when I go fuel injection! Does the pump get in the way of the float at all? It looks a little close in the pictures.

Thank you,

The pump CAN get in the way, but if you do this, you will see that the floater has a couple grooves on it. I used the groove that offset the floater away from my pump. If this isn't enough, you can creatively bend the pickup tube or floater rod. Just be aware you have to fit it all through a tiny space. That part sucks, but it is doable.

I expect I will have to make some adjustments for my floater or even pickup tube down the road. Another question is if the gauge will read right. I will know when I'm ready to hook my battery back up. Even if it operates upside down, that's an easy fix. In my case, with around half a tank, I wont know anything until I drive a ways. But I was having gauge issues before.

[4x4jollyr]

Thank you Captain, and Alcoatari(are you in aluminum?:>)) for all this great info.  Un-val-u-able.  and thats not mispelled! I plan to convert my 258 hopefully this summer.

[Alcoatari]

Nope, not in aluminum. Just a lowly grease-monkey. The name is an amalgam of two items that were lying around me when I needed a screen name. I hate having numbers in my screen name... Just some creeping mental pathology of mine.

And you are welcome for the info.

(It is worth noting, the fuel pump works great, though I still have some kinks to work out with the level sender.)