Hello,

the fuel pump in my 1972 914 1.7L is on the firewall, behind the passenger seat. It is attached with a bracket that is held by two nuts which screw into rubber mounts.

When I tried to get these nuts out, the nut with its screw twists inside the rubber mount. Moreover, probably due to being there for a long time and corroding, the metal bracket appears welded solid to the pump. So even though from all my twisting an turning the mounts are very loose now (maybe 1/4" play) I can not for the life of me get the pump out.

Any advice? I am afraid to cut through the bracket with a dremel tool, because most likely there is still gasoline in the pump and I am afraid the sparks will start a fire. And even if I did cut it, since the bracket appears to be welded to the pump I am not sure I'd be much better off...

Is there a way to simply rip the bumpers off? How are they attached to the other side?

Andrei.

Use a dremel to cut under the heads of the screws/bolts holding it to th firewall. Then use a thin screwdriver as a tap to push out the bolts.

Hope this works.

Cut the rubber mounts with a snips or box cutter ? .....the fuel hose too.
Use your grinder to remove the remaining parts from the hell hole.
do the rest on the bench

not a stock location
so no telling how or what the previous owner used for those bolts

I'd cut the rubber brackets, do it on the bench... and put it in a better location going back. you don't want fuel lines behind your back, inside of the drivers compartment

Can you post a pic so we can see what ails ya

Early cars had fuel pump on rear firewall

OP says he has a '72. My wife's is a '71 and the pump is at the right side below the engine shelf forward of the engine mount, but not on the lateral firewall/bulkhead

My bad, English is not my native language so I confused the firewall with the sidewall. It is mounted exactly where Mark S says, under the engine shelf forward of the engine mount, inside the engine compartment.

Let me be as precise as I can be, and I'll try to take some photos when I get home (I'm at work now). Imagine the hell-hole under the battery tray. There is a shelf under it, that mates with the engine tin along some rubber seals. The pump is right under this shelf, the rear end of it butting against the firewall/bulkhead, and the part with the nozzles pointing towards the back of the car.

The way it is mounted is by using a round bracket that goes around the pump. There are two rubber isolation mounts which are round and about 1" in diameter, and have studs at both ends. One end of each stud goes through the shelf I was talking about, and is fastened there somehow (don't know if it is with a nut at the other end, or if the tin is tapped). The other end goes through the pump bracket and has a nut holding the pump.

These nuts are themselves very difficult to access, being somewhat obstructed by the pump. I was able to put a 1/4" drive 10mm socket with an extension on them, but the stud turns inside the rubber mount, without the nut coming out. The other end of the mount is also hard to access, and probably due to acid from the battery above it, it is very rusted.

Putting a dremel tool at either end of the mounts seems impossible, the space is just too tight. I thought of maybe coming in with angled needle nose pliers and trying to squeeze the rubber (from under the car) so the stud won't turn inside it. Or I thought about putting double nuts on the upper stud and trying to turn it that way, but both methods seem unlikely to work (I have not tried either of them).

Needless to say, I've soaked the whole thing in penetrating oil already.

I am at a loss what to do now... the car was supposed to be running today, now it can not be moved, the garage can not be closed (it is in the way of the door) etc. And I do not dare push it off the ramps, since without an engine I can not push it back up. I hope I don't have to end up towing it to my resident Porsche mechanic...

I had a similar problem with my 1970 model year 914 The nuts on the rubber fuel pump mount just spun around in the firewall when I tried to loosen the nuts holding the pump to the rubber mounts.

It turns out the firewall area that holds the pump, which is located in the same neighborhood as the hellhole, rusts out just like the hellhole area due to poor engine compartment drainage. On my car the mounting nut area on the firewall side had rusted out, so the whole rubber mount just spun around when I tried to loosen the nuts holding the fuel pump body to the rubber mount. A good yank on the pump will probably result in the pump coming off in your hands, along with the rubber mounts and a rusted piece of the firewall area behind the pump.

In my opinon, that firewall area isn't really a structural area. If you take out your fuel injection computer that is mounted in front of the battery, you will be able to see the little firewall section that the backs of the rubber fuel pump mounts are screwed into. That little firewall area doesn't seem to serve any purpose other than providing a place for the fuel pump's rubber mounts to be attached to the body.

This would be a good opportunity to evaluate mounting your fuel pump somewhere else so it is not directly above the heating system's hot air tubes.

914sgofast2: Not sure if you are referring to the shelf (see my correction above) or the actual firewall. Whichever it is, luckily for me (?!) the shelf area is still solid enough that yanking hard on the pump did not do anything. (I was hoping for the rubber to break, not the metal, but neither gave.)

Here is a picture of someone else's pump that I found on the web. Mine looks exactly the same (except that I already took out all the plumbing). You can see one of the rubber mounts at the top of the pump.

The rubber mounts should have nuts on top of the engine shelf.
If they are too rusted to unbolt, I would just use a cut off tool or dremel and cut the nuts off the studs in the rubber mounts. Probably not easy access unless you have the engine out but you should be able to get at them.

Jim

Changed mine to a 2 port inline pump. All of those hoses look like a bad highway interchange. Germans good engineers, but sometimes over do it.

The above photo is the standard early car arrangement.
If that is what yours looks like.....cut through the rubber mounts.
You'll have to replace them.
Visit Harbor Freight.....buy the cheapest electric grinder they sell. One that has replaceable cutting discs.
Below the battery.....but above the shelf you'll find two nuts....they are holding the remainder of the rubber mounts.....grind those nuts off.....carefully....if you can....
do the same with the mounts on the fuel pump....wrap the pump with a wet cloth.....
be careful.
Voila !

Ugh. I followed the advice of the others on this list and with great effort (and a big pair if pliers) managed to rip off the rubber mounts. Now I could either try to grind the remains of the old ones out (a bit worrying since I never used a grinder before) or just leave them in place and drill new holes for the new mounts half an inch away. I’ll decide tomorrow, now I am exhausted from all this adventure

You can probably cut the old parts of the rubber mounts with just a hacksaw blade and some enthusiasm. Hold them with a plier from the one side and cut on the other.

I've seen several cars where the 3 port pump was just abandoned and plumbed around when moving the pump to the front.

Industrial razor blade cuts right through the rubber mounts and the old fuel line .
Much easier that it looks.

Don't grind, get a small dremel cutoff wheel and see if you can cut them from above. The nuts should be somewhat easily accessible from the top, on the side of the hellhole shelf.