I'm wanting input based on experience and maybe some ideas on this folks:
I've got a 97 ZJ (ZG really) and I'm in the Australian outback (Northern Territory) where fuel is just plain dirty with crap! Very few fuel places have final coalescing filters on their pumps. Last year in Far North Quennsland (Cape York area) I had the fun experience of having to spend about 2 weeks waiting for a complete Fuel Module to be flown in from RockAuto to a landing strip near where I was!
On ZJ's you can't put a hose down the fuel tank inlet and siphon out fuel - it's got something stopping it. You can't usually get at/remove pump without dropping the entire tank!!!!! (Sheer design genius....NOT!)....it makes the job even harder!
I had plenty of time and internet access so looked at heaps of Jeep sites etc and googled also. I found out about "Swampy's Fuel Pump By-pass" but it wouldn't quite work on my model (1997+) because my fuel pressure regulator is integral with the Fuel Pump Module. This module scews down with a ring and contains a fuel pump (duh!), the fuel pressure regulator, a primary filter screen and a small secondary filter and assorted piping, the fuel level float and rheostat, hoses, springs, gaskets etc all inside a long cylindrical plastic case. It has at the top a fuel outlet (only) and a liquid/vapour line to the Evap cannister and a multi plug connector......It's easy to replace the whole thing with a new inexpensive (US$ 180) delivered by air, for a good US made Carter replacement which I got - or you can go Chinese for half that price or genuine Bosch for double the price.
However being a curious man I carefully opened up the old one and found that the primary filter/strainer was simply blocked up with crud.....I cleaned it up and tested it and found it to work fine.....now I've got it and its component parts as spares. I also had twice replaced the tertiary cannister type filter and cut one open to find it clean! All the gunk must get stopped by the first and second filters!
I did however, while the module was out, cut a nine inch circular hole in the floor of the boot to make for easy access to the wretched thing!
OK....now at present I've got exactly the same symptoms again....typical fuel starvation problems after going on long stretches of bad corrugations, which stirs up all the sediment in the tank and it gets sucked up by the pump onto the filter/strainer. The fuel tank is pretty full and I'm going to wait till I get down to a fairly low level to take out the module and clean the strainer.
But this is not a good scenario, having to clean it out at often inconvenient times by removing it from the tank which will also require a new module gasket.
Does anyone have any better ideas or improvements on this present set up. Ideally I'd like to have a disposable filter out side of the tank........I've got a few ideas, but I'd like more input......and this has been a really long post!
I've got a 97 ZJ (ZG really) and I'm in the Australian outback (Northern Territory) where fuel is just plain dirty with crap! Very few fuel places have final coalescing filters on their pumps. Last year in Far North Quennsland (Cape York area) I had the fun experience of having to spend about 2 weeks waiting for a complete Fuel Module to be flown in from RockAuto to a landing strip near where I was!
On ZJ's you can't put a hose down the fuel tank inlet and siphon out fuel - it's got something stopping it. You can't usually get at/remove pump without dropping the entire tank!!!!! (Sheer design genius....NOT!)....it makes the job even harder!
I had plenty of time and internet access so looked at heaps of Jeep sites etc and googled also. I found out about "Swampy's Fuel Pump By-pass" but it wouldn't quite work on my model (1997+) because my fuel pressure regulator is integral with the Fuel Pump Module. This module scews down with a ring and contains a fuel pump (duh!), the fuel pressure regulator, a primary filter screen and a small secondary filter and assorted piping, the fuel level float and rheostat, hoses, springs, gaskets etc all inside a long cylindrical plastic case. It has at the top a fuel outlet (only) and a liquid/vapour line to the Evap cannister and a multi plug connector......It's easy to replace the whole thing with a new inexpensive (US$ 180) delivered by air, for a good US made Carter replacement which I got - or you can go Chinese for half that price or genuine Bosch for double the price.
However being a curious man I carefully opened up the old one and found that the primary filter/strainer was simply blocked up with crud.....I cleaned it up and tested it and found it to work fine.....now I've got it and its component parts as spares. I also had twice replaced the tertiary cannister type filter and cut one open to find it clean! All the gunk must get stopped by the first and second filters!
I did however, while the module was out, cut a nine inch circular hole in the floor of the boot to make for easy access to the wretched thing!
OK....now at present I've got exactly the same symptoms again....typical fuel starvation problems after going on long stretches of bad corrugations, which stirs up all the sediment in the tank and it gets sucked up by the pump onto the filter/strainer. The fuel tank is pretty full and I'm going to wait till I get down to a fairly low level to take out the module and clean the strainer.
But this is not a good scenario, having to clean it out at often inconvenient times by removing it from the tank which will also require a new module gasket.
Does anyone have any better ideas or improvements on this present set up. Ideally I'd like to have a disposable filter out side of the tank........I've got a few ideas, but I'd like more input......and this has been a really long post!
