>either an STC, or any 337 approval for a back-up electrical fuel pump? In >response to my questions yesterday, a few also had qualms about the fuel >system. It seems like an electic pump could surely give a lot of peace of >mind. >Jerry Eichenberger >N2906H
There probably is one. Skip Carden, Executive Director of the Ercoupe Owners Club has a collection of most every 337 ever done for the coupe. (If you haven't joined this Club, you really need to!!! Great Group! Dues aren't bad! A 16page magazine every month just full of tips, etc.!) Anyway, I'll editorialize. The whole idea behind the original fuel system on the coupe was to give the pilot peace of mind. I.E. If the fuel pump, or something else goes, you still have 45 minutes to an hour's worth of fuel in the header tank to get you to the nearest airport. Before you replace the fuel pump, what do the logs say. If there is no mention of replacement or work on it for the life of the airplane, you can probably bet it needs rebuilding...or replacing if you want to. This happened to me...I was 15 minutes out on a 2 hour cross country and noticed the float going down. I did not hesitate, turned around and got home safely. Filled up the header tank, flew around the patch a while, the float went down again, landed without incident. I removed the fuel pump myself...it's easy...took it apart to look. All fiber and rubber parts were useless and the valves seemed worn. I got a rebuild kit from the outfit here in North Carolina that advertises in Coupe Capers every month. The rebuild kit had all parts except the cam, so it was just like a new one. I put it together, my mechanic checked it, safety wired it, installed it, and I have been going ever since. (That is, until I took the wings off to recover.) It's not really what you'd call a high tech fuel pump. It's the same one we used to work on on our old Fords. You can still buy them at the auto parts store for about 25 bucks...but it won't say FAA on it. I went back over your original inquiry: You said, "We put 1.9 gallons in the nose, and bobber went up to where it was on the trip home. Then, when we flew it, after about 20 minutes, bobber started falling again..." The fact that the bobber stayed up for 20 minutes before it started to fall leads me to believe you might have something in a wing tank that will block the outlet while it is pumping and break loose when you hit the ground on landing... or something like that. In 20 minutes you will burn 1.5 gallons (based on 4.5 - 5 gph) so that bobber should have started to go down right away. You might want to drain the entire fuel system, clean the tanks, blow out the lines, and try again. You also said, "The right wing tank was leaking out over the wing in flight, so it looked like gas was going backward from nose into right wing tank." I had that problem, too. New gaskets on all 3 gas caps cured that. Hope this helps! Pete, N3552H -------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- E. T. "Pete" Petrie Computer Science at My friend Dean Brock says, "Either you Wilkes Community College believe in the Law of the Excluded Middle Wilkesboro, NC 28697 or you don't." Me...I'm a little fuzzy Fon: 336.838.6185 9am-4pm EST about it! Fax: 336.838.6277 24 hours -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- -
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