Fuel Pump Boot (was: Re: [DML] DELOREAN SAFETY).

["therealdmcvegas" <dmcvegas@xxxxxxx>]

It is a flawed design, yes. But only because too many people over 
tighten the boot and cap.

You've got rubber, on rubber, and you're trying to hold them both 
down with a hose clamp, onto a small, plastic lip underneath. So when 
you try and torque the giant hose clamp down, you're not going to 
really feel as strong a resistance in your hand, like you would if 
you were clamping in a radiator hose, for instance. When you over 
torque the clamp, it doesn't cut into the rubber, like it would a 
hose. Instead, both the cap, and the boot begin to creep upwards, and 
slide off the lip of the tank. Tighten down the clamp too far, and 
the cap will pop right off of the boot.

Instead, you need to tighten down the clamp only so far, until you've 
got a snug fit. As soon as the clamp stops compressing the rubber 
cap, you're there.

There is obviously a safety consideration. After all, if the cap is 
loose, and/or breached somehow, you will have gasoline fumes enter 
the passenger compartment, as they waft up thru the drain on the 
water trap for the fresh air intake, and are then sucked into the 
passenger compartment, where they might be able to be ignited. As a 
side note, if you top off your gas tank, and smell fumes inside 
afterwards, you've got a problem with the boot. The belief that this 
is "normal" for all DeLoreans is total B.S. After replacing a ripped 
boot, and tightening down my cap properly, I can top off the tank to 
the point of having a full filler neck, and I cannot smell a thing.

Now, why did DMC, or Lotus choose this design? Who knows. But, My 
guess would be that you need to completely isolate the electical 
wires. Which isn't a problem to get around, and could be easily 
replaced. Just swap it over to the same locking ring assembly that 
holds the sending unit in place. You could do it one of two ways, 
with either a two, or 3 peice assembly that would require minor 
modifications to the boot and cap, depending upon tooling costs.

I wouldn't really think that the gas cap becomming unlodged would be 
that big of a problem, since I've never heard of this senario 
actually being played out in real life, and due to the limited # of 
vehicles involved. But contact me off list if you want to know more 
details.

-Robert
vin 6585 "X"

--- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Harold McElraft" <hmcelraft@xxxx> 
wrote:
> Very interesting information and probably something we should all 
> think about.
> 
> The current configuration of the fuel pump and the clamping still 
> has a weakness in that the pump can come out because the fuel tank, 
> where the fuel pump clamp goes around the rubber boot, is too 
> flexible. In a hard frontal impact or probably front side impact 
the 
> boot can probably come off especially if the inspection cover above 
> it was broken loose or deformed in some way. I can't tell you how 
> many of these fuel pump boots I've seen that are loose or could be 
> maneuvered by hand and just slipped off. Until now I have not 
> considered the consequences in an accident.
> 
> I can think of several ways to anchor the boot as I'm sure lots of 
> members can. I believe this is probably a safety issue that we need 
> to address.
> 
> Send me any suggestions (hmcelraft@xxxx) and I will accumulate 
> and post for the group. I'm sure a practical solution(s) can be 
> developed or formulated by one of our innovative vendors.
> 
> Harold McElraft - 3354




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