I had bought a Carter from Napa, back in 2003/2004 for my '97. Lasted 14 months.
Cater pumps have a 12 month warranty, just like Airtex.
That was a $300+ bite.

 

Has anyone actually done an autopsy on a failed pump? I recently picked up a 98 with a bad fuel pump... Paid $350 for the whole truck. I tore the p0ump apart to see what failed. The brushes in the motor had worn down to the point they fell out of the brush holder. The commutator was very worn but if the brushes werent as bad as they were, the pump would have still run. The pump had 150,000 at time of failure.

Another blazer i did a pump job on actually had a bad wiring conection on the bottom of the plastic bung. insulation was burnt so That is what I blame that pump on.

Everyone who has a dead pump, will you please try to do an autopsy to actually see what is failing? Electrics? Brushes? Actual pump failure/motor failure? This might help the people who have repeat failures.

IMO, I thinks its going to be the brushes. How long can you run a motor with brushes until they fail??? Kinda like how many licks does it take to get into the center of the tootsie pop!

 

If you examine the fuel inside the filter when you change it and find black residue in it, that's from the disintegrating brushes.

 

Great stuff in this thread.. finally getting down to the facts.

Basically.. work {power} = Volume x Pressure. It takes a lot more power to move n volume of a liquid @ 60 lbs pressure than at 40 lbs pressure. Power used ends up as heat.

40 lb system pumps can be cooled by the liquid flowing through them*, 60 lb systems obviously not. Thus the sump design.
And why mechanics say never habitually run your tank under 1/3 full.

This also might explain why AC Delco is the only dependable replacement .. because they actually put engineers on the application.
___________________________________________
Bunch of technical blather and speculation follows:

Having been driving EFI Fords for over 20 years I would snort and call BS on that. Never had a FP failure under 140,000 {prev Tbird made it to 300,000 assuming it hadnt been changed prior to 140K}

So.. i was wrong! And not always but usually an 80s/90s Ford FP {usually the Walbro I'm thinking} will signal its impending death by bearing rattle.. like your heater blower motor does.

Our system here doesnt 'wear out'... it bakes itself. Or fails due to power starvation {burnt wiring / connection, plus more power through brushes = faster brush wear}. Does that have anything to do with the wiring change?

Now you would think the aftermarket would understand that and get a pump design that cooled itself better. A simple garage shop fix would tap the output with a tube and nozzle to bathe the shell of the pump.
But then emissions requirements raise their ugly heads because that would increase the tank's vapor pressure and the vapor recovery system would have to work even harder.

New non-return systems are being built that will make things worse unless there's an internal bypass to allow constant fuel flow through the pump. What I think will happen is the pump actually lying on the floor of the tank at the same level as, or below, the pickup.

 

Im sorry Petty I agree with certian points, but not all of them. One of my pumps failed due to worn bushing that literally fell out of the brush holder. Brushes are a consumable. They were not burnt.

Generally a motor that has over heated would show this by over heated windings. This could be caused by high amp draw or inadequate cooling. BUT, These pumps are cooled by the fuel flowing through them. Not splashing over them. If that was the case, they would lay flat. With fuel sloshing around in the tank anyways, Im not real sure I agree with the added pressures you speak of. The heat absorbed by the fuel causing it to vaporize would be dissapated by the fuel condensing on the cooler tank walls.

The wiring changes you speak of were designed to take care of the connector overheating where the wiring harness connects. I bet those pumps were actually fine. But since you cannot replace the burnt connector without replacing the entire assembly, it makes it appear to be a fuel pump failure.

Not trying to start a war, just some good natured idea tossing

 

EXACTLY! I'm not anchored in ANY opinion.. just want to know HOW and WHY!
And it's about time we invested some effort into understanding this instead of just shrugging it off and saying 'buy the AC Delco'. That's passing the buck on.. because you need to be able to explain WHY cheapos fail.

Proposing wrong paths and having them logically refuted is how you learn.. even if you're a 68 yo coot like me. And I've been knocked back a lot since I was in the Mustang mailing list in 1987 and various Ford forums since then.
Frankly this car scares the crap out of me because I dont have a lot of disposable income and both the wife and I love it. But I have a theory that alleviates my worries about the injector system and that's related to gasoline sources, so that leaves the FP wearout issue.

EXCEPT that the design has the pump immersed in a sump of fuel. That is a very expensive measure to take and I can only think of one reason. Like I said, moving 19 lb fuel an hour at 60 lbs pressure uses more energy than moving 19 lbs an hour at 40 lbs pressure. That produces more heat.
Bosch designed the pumps to be internally cooled as you say, but evidently the internal construction good enough for the standard Bosch parameters dont get the job done at higher power levels
Also while the same amount of heat is absorbd in a bath as in a shower, the shower results in a higher instantaneous vapor pressure. LONG term it will even out but it's short term recovery that's the issue.

Well why cant you? maybe we should find out how to do it. And what to watch for in a replacement assembly. It's a fact those bad/ burnt connectors might result in lower pressures at the regulator while leakdown seems fine. maybe some more investigation will result in being able to use a cheaper pump.
Like the Walbro 255 which doesnt seem to solve the problem in the present assembly. and if the Bosch pump worked, that would probably be all over the S10 world in a heartbeat wouldnt it?

just sayin..

 

I enjoy chatting with folks that have been around the block a few times. First forum i belonged to was yesterdays tractors and the ford truck forum. God i love those FE motors!

Im going to start with the last point about why you cant just repair the burnt connector instead of replacing the pump. Both you and I know we now live in a "throw-away" society. Tools are cheap - back in the day they werent, You cherished your tools because it was either your livelyhood or they were just god-awful expensive! Its trhe same thing with mechanical assemblies. Cheaper and easier to replace instead of repair. How many old mechanics would look at something and say, "Aw heck....I can just do this and that and it will be good as new!" and then reinstall it! And you know what? IT WORKED! I bet you cant find a mechanic now days that will repair a fuel pump assembly from a blazer if it was just a simple wiring repair. He has it down and out already...why not sell the customer a new one?

Concerning the sump of fuel the pump is in....My Blazer doesnt have a sump that is actually part of the tank. it does have a small plastic dyke built around it but I figured they used that as more of a baffle to prevent the pump from cavitating during cornering or hard stops.

I am hoping several people in here will pull they old pump off the shelf and smack it with a hammer. I am VERY interested in the autopsy reports!

Its a pleasure Pettyfog to bounce ideas with you! I bet you have more tricks up your sleeve than any of us whipper snapper combined!

Just curious, the words you use, youre educated. What did you do for a living?

Have a great night!