Studie’s Fuel Mystery

It was a dark, foggy night when Grease Girl and her ’55 Studebaker were driving along the Pacific Coast Highway leaving Los Angeles. Looking out towards the ocean, darkness was lurking. The sound of the breaking waves could hardly be heard beyond the noise of Stude’s hopped-up engine. All the sudden the car lost power. Wait… it was back again. Nope… it sputtered and cut dead.

Rolling over gravel to the side of the road, Grease Girl could still hear the whine of the electric fuel pump – whinier then ever. Grabbing the flashlight and screwdriver from below her seat, she got out to check under the hood. Stalled again. A mess of junk sat inside the fuel filter, taunting her with its repeated arrival. The smell of gasoline filled the air and soaked Grease Girl’s hands as she unscrewed the filter. Illuminating the junk inside with the flashlight she saw the usual, some coffee grind looking stuff with a few shiny metal pieces included.

The ocean waves sounded louder then ever. Would Grease Girl and her Stude get back on the road or be stranded in this cold, erie place for the night? The door banged loudly as she got in, reminding her that to fix those hinges. A turn of the key and the engine roared to life. How many miles would she go before this whole ritual would happen again? Sometimes when you’re leaving LA, it feels like you’ll never get out…

Even if I am being a little dramatic with this story, it has been quite a mystery behind Stude’s fuel delivery system.

At first I only saw coffee-grind stuff coming out of the filter – and it didn’t seem to be magnetic – which I learned indicated junk in the trunk or sediment in my fuel tank. Never having anything similar show up before, I thought perhaps it was a bad batch of gas but its gone on too long for that. I’ve also seen some small shiny bits – which I’m assuming is metal from a breaking down fuel pump. It seems like its a combination of both a dirty tank and a bad pump.

I’ve been living with it since the summer. I have to admit, I’m not always the quickest person to hop on a car problem – I have so many other things going on in life and in the garage! So since Studie still ran, I still drove her. But when Stude cut out 3 times on my ride across town recently, I decided to park her.

From what I’ve observed, I’m diagnosing both a bad fuel pump and a bad tank. So I’ll be dropping and cleaning the tank, replacing the electric fuel pump, and I think now would be a good time to run new fuel lines as well. Good thing I have a back-up daily driver right now – because even though this shouldn’t cost more then a couple hundred, I’ve gotta save my pennies!