Lucy: 1KZTE Fuel Pump Rebuild

For about a year I'd had a single misfire when on long motorway journeys - an hour'ish into driving and BUMP, then calm again - only ever once through the trip. Recently I'd come back south from Leeds and the single bump manifested itself into a series of them, forcing me to the hard shoulder to restart the ignition, upon which she fired back into juicy diesel chugging life.

I knew I had to strip the fuel pump next time I was in the shop, but days after getting home from Leeds I get a call from my brother to tell me Mum's gone into hospital. We need to get down to the Riviera - Paignton - straight away. I leave that afternoon, heading down the Fosse way to join onto the A46 and then the M5. By the time I reach the motorway the motor has already stumbled, and the token gesture of a half litre of redex I poured in at a service station was contributing nothing to the party. I made it to junction 14 before the stumble became a splutter, and the truck resigned from duty.

Recovered by a nice west country guy, called Andy, we make it back about eleven pm, direct to the farm where my unit is to offload the truck and pickup the Panda. I take that home and sleep well. On leaving the next morning I make it as far as the edge of Coventry before realising the car has no road tax. That debacle felt like the last, until, two hours later, on a downhill and twisty section of the A38, the rear brakes fail - pedal goes to the floor, then starts kicking back at my foot, bouncing up and down. The final twelve miles are horrible, but I make it to Mum's, where she's now returned from what thankfully turned out to be a false alarm.

Later inspection reveals the friction material to have delaminated from the shoe backs on the rear brakes, so two floating crescents of it were battering their way round the drum. I use Mum's bike - operational but small for my frame - to get to the local factors to purchase new shoes and a breaker bar for the shaft nut. I get a couple of strange looks loading my parts into the handlebar mounted wicker basket and peddle off up the road.



Onto the point of the post - removing / cleaning and repairing / replacing a 1KZTE fuel pump. 

Electrical diagnosis with multi meter and power probe showed all sensors and solenoids to be working OK - I could even hear the spill valve plunging at the right time but, still, no fuel got past the pump output. I spent hours checking out the circuits between ECU, ignition and the pump, then more hours confirming my results with the wiring manuals and scrawling the forums for experience of the same symptoms. As my sense of logic and patience drew to a close, I realised that the spill valve was getting louder every time I applied voltage. It's controlled by a pulsed signal so direct feed is not the ideal way to test, though in this case it needed just that in order to unstick itself. After multiple 12V opens and closes, the harness was reconnected and she sprang into life on first turn of the key. Proof - spill valve is crudded up. Time to replace. The 36mm hex is slimmer than the valve body itself - i.e. no bloody sockets here - only spanners. I chopped a fan spanner to fit in the space next to the pump but there is very little chance of getting out without removing the pump - I couldn't manage it.

Remove everything on the LHS of the engine bay - air filter housing, ducting, battery, oil filter, and - once all the connectors have been removed - push the electrical harnesses out of the way. Access to remove the cambelt is required and can be done just with the fan and shroud off, but having the radiator out gives plenty more room and is a good excuse to flush the cooling circuit out.

Next - follow the manual - everything's in there and there are no real surprises, though depending on soiling it might be worth scrubbing around the mounting points on the pump to reveal the fixings - mine had been previously run on used veg oil which, regardless of filtering, cruds shit up and leaves nasty deposits that turn chewing gum like with some heat cycling.

A custom pusher tool is needed to force the pump out of the timing case - mount it off the M8 holes for the pump sprocket and remove the woodruff key from the shaft before pressing.



Once my pump was out I spent a couple of days dismantling and cleaning with a scraper, a soft wire brush, an electric toothbrush and scrubbing pad. It was painstaking but worth it to see it on completion. I did a set of seals and gaskets, the internal filters and the washers on the in and out ports.





























Pump cleaned, rebuilt and ready to refit - slide it back in. Make sure to pay attention to the scribed timing mark on the LH mounting flange and match it against the timing case. The injection pipes can be an arse to route through the intake manifold - take your time and thread gently.





I took the opportunity to do the water pump and all the belts while I had access.

Once all major fixings are back in, the cam belt is on and lined up, and the rad returned if it was removed, reconnect all the harnesses and any critical bits, and test it as soon as is practical.