wrote:

> On Tue, 02 Nov 2004 16:53:18 -0500, Matt Whiting
> > wrote:
>
>>Alex Rodriguez wrote:

>>>this also means you should keep your tank level from getting too low.
>>>Otherwise you can shorten the life of your pump.
>>
>>Another urban legend.
>>
>>Matt
>
> Not totally. Running the pump VERY low on fuel reduces cooling and
> lubrication and CAN hasten the pump's demise.

Absolutely not on lubrication. It is impossible not to have gasoline in
the pump at the bearings if the vehicle is running off of fuel from the
pump since the bearings (more accurately, bushings in almost all
consumer vehicles)are within the internal pump volume (the shaft and
bearings are surrounded by the fuel as it flows thru the pump. If
there's no gasoline at the bearings, neither is there fuel getting to
the engine, i.e., the engine will not run, and most likely neither will
the pump for very long at all (and that's not "low" in fuel - that's
"out of" fuel). The bearings running dry or even slightly low is not a
credible situation at all - not even at the point that the engine cuts
off due to your "running out of gas" (at which time the pump still is
full of fuel).

As far as the cooling aspect, yeah - you might have that on a
technicality, but you do have a steady cool volume of the fuel running
thru the complete internals of the pump/motor assy. So, probably the
outside surface of the pump (case and magnets, which are on the inside
surface of the case) will rise a few degrees, but the insides (armature,
brushes, bearings/bushings) would rise *very* little (due to the volume
flow rate of ambient temperature fluid that bathes those components. I
doubt that those thermal effects are at all significant in pump life.

IMO...

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
adddress with the letter 'x')


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