Day 2 was the first of two drive days. All we had to do was drive from Great Bend, KS to Pueblo, CO taking the designated route and stopping at one checkpoint along the way. Easy enough, right? Well….
We were about 90 miles into the trip when we started having fuel system problems due to the heat. We tried adding 5 gallons of cool E85 from one of our onboard jugs, but it didn’t help much. We ended up losing fuel pressure and stopping on the side of the road for what would be the first of several fuel pump changes. As luck would have it, Fred and Witty from 1320 Video stopped by to pay us a visit. Scott Witty captured some of my favorite photos of the whole trip while we were working on the car.
After changing pumps we made it into the next town with no problems and sat down for a nice lunch at Freddy’s
With full bellies and lifted spirits, we set off toward our first and only checkpoint for the day. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it very far before fuel pump #2 gave out. We had just passed a truck stop when we pulled over on the shoulder and then proceeded to coast backward down the onramp for about 1/4 mile where we pulled into the truck stop and found only a sliver of shade to work in. By the time we were done, the shade was gone and it was a sweltering 95 degrees.
Fuel Pump change #2
This time we had switched to a pair of parallel Bosch 044 pumps which put out over 90 psi and drew 30 amps. We had to rig up a relay and fuse for the new setup and then we were on our way. But not very far. We took the very next offramp because the fuel pressure wasn’t regulating properly. We figured the problem was having two pumps running when we really only needed one. The plan was to disconnect one pump and only run the other, but that would only work if the pumps had check valves, which we were unsure of. As luck would have it, they DO have check valves, so we were on the road again, running on a single Bosch 044. By now the sun was setting, so the cooler temps helped get us to Pueblo with no further problems.
