Which 560SL fuel pump to buy?

[Jack M]

Hi, After doing the usual Google, parts house, and ebay searches and reading most of the posts here I have come to ask the obvious.

Fuel pumps are being sold NEW from as low as $50.00 to as high as $300.00 Some look identical to each other others slightly different.

How do you determine if you need a new pump?
What should I be looking for in purchasing a new pump?
If one dies does the other one work well enough to get you home?

Thanks for your help. Jack

[coleyjf]

You'll find loads of threads on this subject - some people strip them down and some replace.

You can tell it's a problem when you can hear the fuel pump over the sound of the engine with the hood down!

It's one of those things that just "goes". If you're ever let down by a fuel pump dying out on the road a sharp tap on the pump casing with a wrench often brings it back to life for a while My 1st ever car was an old (1962) Mini which had just the same problem and I was always reaching under the rear end and hitting the fuel pump on that!!

Mine was real noisy on the 107 and rather than worry about it I bought one from these about 4 years ago;
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/The-air-flow-meter-company?_rdc=1
I paid about £30 at the time and it looked just like the original I took off and has not given me a problem since.

Cheers

Jim

[ironman21]

Originally Posted by Jack M

Hi, After doing the usual Google, parts house, and ebay searches and reading most of the posts here I have come to ask the obvious.

Fuel pumps are being sold NEW from as low as $50.00 to as high as $300.00 Some look identical to each other others slightly different.

How do you determine if you need a new pump?
What should I be looking for in purchasing a new pump?
If one dies does the other one work well enough to get you home?

Thanks for your help. Jack

I am in the same boat, prices all over the place, replacing mine because of full restoration. I decided to give these guys a try and keeping my old ones just in case. I wast told by the seller the they sell lots of them with no problems. A member from another site replaced his from a company that sells pumps from an asian country 3 years no problems. I get from the pictures that it could be the same pumps sold through many suppliers.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230465770668

[KCM]

I would stick with Bosch or a well-known brand. You get what you pay for. Knew a guy that had a new pump installed on a 280E which I'm pretty sure was not a Bosch. Afterwards the car would not start sporatically. Turned out the new pump was bad. The funny thing is that the pump had also just been replaced before he got it.

On a 560SL, if one pump goes bad, the car will still run fine. You might want to check to make sure both are still working and that one has not already given up the ghost. You can check each pump individually by unhooking the wires from the pump at the pump itself, then jumping it with a seperate 12VDC power source, one terminal +, the other -. If it runs fast and free, it should be okay.

P.S. The pumps will run backwards if you get the terminals switched.

[sokoloff]

Speaking of running the pumps backwards, you can remove the pumps and run diesel through them backwards on your work bench to clean them. Some folks have reported saving what they thought were bad pumps by doing this.