This is the bottom of the pressure pump electrical connector on the inside of the fuel cell. The wiring was coated with epoxy at the connector to create a liquid-tight seal. Gasoline is a pretty terrible conductor of electricity, so it’s not critical that bare wiring be completely covered by the epoxy. But we’ll do our best when we repair this anyway.
Also note that hoses falling off of barbs inside of fuel cells and surge tanks is generally a crappy way to end a weekend, so we’ll be using the same single-use single-ear hose clamp that Radium used here. You can get a kit that comes with the crimper and an assortment of different-sized clamps on Amazon, too.
Here’s my pretty poor re-do on the epoxy. This was a relatively annoying epoxy job because the epoxy itself is pretty liquid-y when it comes out of the applicator. So we needed something that would contain the epoxy and hold it around the wiring and the connector.
I ended up cutting a hole in a bottle cap that was about the right size, dropping it over the wiring and down onto the connector, and then filling up the cap with the epoxy. I then trimmed away the cap. Another option would have been to use a short length of PVC tube and some tape to prevent much epoxy from leaking out past the bottom.
Either way, it’s MISSION CRITICAL to use a fuel-safe epoxy. We used Resintech RT125, which has good chemical resistance, but we probably should have used EP1385, which is 3x the price.
Here’s the inside of the surge tank, more clearly visible. We only have one pressure pump and one lift pump. In addition to replacing the fuel pumps, I also replaced the short length of fuel hose on both the pressure pump and the lift pump, and the little filter socks on the fuel pumps. I keep a spreadsheet of parts and their respective run time, so I know exactly how many hours most replaceable items have been used for. But, honestly, fuel pumps should probably be changed pretty regularly. Again, a small amount of preventative maintenance prevents a whole weekend from being ruined.
Think about it this way –
The cost of the track weekend for even a local event is hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in consumables, fuel (including the tow rig), food, lodging, etc. Do you really want to throw away thousands of dollars because you didn’t want to spend $300/yr replacing two fuel pumps?
