Fuel Tank Inspection Port and Cleaning

[Jon Schneider]

Revised: Okay, I see the issue now; it's the ground wire from the glow plug solenoid to the fuel pump.  Interesting.  Wouldn't you think a ground wire would always be "on" (i.e., an active ground)?  If that's the case, and the fuel pump hot lead is still wired to the non-glow-plug lead on the ignition switch (which is how it was on my recently purchased new panel), I don't see how that the different grounding makes a difference.  Unless solenoids work by shutting down both the pos. and ground?

[Ron Hill]

Bill : I apologize that I didn't see that you have an M35 engine.  I gave the solution for an M25XP wired fuel pump.  As Ted suggested use a jumper wire to get that lift pump going. 

[Ted Pounds]

Bill,
As I see it you have two options to drain the tank:

"Hotwire" the fuel pump to get it running.  All you have to do is hook up a 12 volt wire to the plus terminal on the pump and it'll pump fuel.  If you wanted to you could permanently wire it with a switch to turn it on for bleeding or whatever.

Get another electric pump (drill pump or whatever) for just just pumping out the tank.  But if you want to reuse the fuel you'll have to get a good filter for it too.

[foursailing]

Thanks Ted - I was considering the "hotwire" option - looked pretty straight forward - assuming I would need a fuse in the line?

Just ordered a 3 stage baja filter - filters down to 74 micron - if I go the pump route I'll recycle throuhg that filter and hopefully it will catch a lot of the crud before it gets to the 2 micron racor.

[Ted Pounds]

If you want to permanently hotwire it then, yes, you need a fuse.  But if it's just temporary to pump the fuel out this one time I think you can get by without the fuse because you'll be monitoring it the whole time.  I don't think the Baja  will be good enough at 74 microns.  You want to run it through something as fine as your finest filter or you will be clogging that filter.  If you're using the existing pump it should be pulling the fuel through the primary filter.  (on my boat that was 2 microns)

[foursailing]

Thanks Ted! - makes sense and will follow your advice.  Curious to see what comes out of the tank with the startron treatment.