[RallySnake]

I used the Carter pump when I built my car. The first one failed about a year after I got it running in 1987. The gear drive was spinning on the motor shaft. It left me stranded in bad place. Carter replaced the pump and I was good for a few years until it failed on an East LA Freeway. From that point on, I have always run two pumps.

For many years the Carter was the primary and a cheap solid state type pump was the backup. When I hit the cockpit switch, they were both on. This got us home from Texas when the primary quit in the middle of nowhere, west Texas. Then, on a rally in the farmlands West of bakersfield, the pressure regulator in the Carter pump failed and the pressure got so high it forced fuel past the Holley carburetor's needle and seat and flooded the top of the carburetor. It took some time to figure out that the problem was not the carburetor. When I did, I reached under the car and pulled a wire off the carter pump and we continued running on the backup pump with correct pressure. We missed a checkpoint and lost the rally though.

After that, I bought a pressure regulator and another Carter pump. I probably should not be so loyal the the Carter, but they make a pleasing hum that is reassuring before I start the engine. The pressure regulator is redundant to the one in the fuel pump and is there "just in case". I also installed a fuel pressure switch from NOS that is connected to a bright warning light on the dash. It warns me if the pressure drops under 5 psi. That's how I found out the the solid state fuel pump could not keep the pressure up.

So, I replaced the solid state pump with the old Carter pump with the stuck pressure regulator. Now, the new Carter is the primary and the old one is the backup and they run on separate relays with separate switches. They both feed through the same Holley pressure regulator. The line also has a fuel pressure gauge in it so I can see it quickly when troubleshooting problems. I think I finally have all the bases covered.