Wrong fuel pump?

[Brister]

My 73 has been converted to a carb. In the fuel line between the pump and the carb is a filter and a shut-off valve which operates like a water spigot, varying the amount of fuel flowing to the carb. The fuel pump runs continuously, not seeming to slow down or stop when the bowl is full. I found the car to run best when the "spigot" valve is barely open. Someone suggested the fuel pump may be original for FI and a different pump needed for carb. Two pumps I've had on my carburated Healey always cut off when the carb bowl is full. Could this be correct.. a different pump required for a carburated engine?

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Yup. Most people feel that it's too difficult to get the stock (40+ PSI) pump choked down to the 3-5 PSI that carbs want. So it usually gets replaced with a small electric low-pressure pump.

Haynes has pictures of the stock fuel pumps. If your pump looks like that, then you probably have the stock one.

I don't know if the carb-oriented pumps shut off when the float bowl is full or not.

--DD

no, the carb fuel pumps do not shut off when the float bowl is full, since gas is always going from the float bowl into the carb/engine, the needle/seat needs a constant flow, most carbs like a 4.5psi constant pressure, i installed a pressure regulator in between my carbs and fuel pump set on 4.5psi and it seemed to run a little bit better w/ a constant pressure than just the varying pump pressure.

[Brister]

Yes, my pump looks like that in figure 2.33 of the Haynes manual. The regulator for the FI pressure pump was apparently removed when the PO changed over to a carb. And both pumps i've had on my Healey shut off when the carb bowl was full.. the first was a plain vanilla German make with points. The present is an electronic type. At any rate, guess it won't hurt to install an electronic like my present Healey pump and see what happens.