Same #588 Fuel Pumps, Different Screen Arrangement?

[Bingster]

I have two Made in USA #588 fuel pumps. One pump at the bottom where the screen and bowl are has two orifices coming out of the pump bottom and through the screen. One inlet into the bowl and one with clean fuel sucked back up through the screen and into the pump?? 

 

The other pump has a metal plate and large center bolt where the bowl and screen should be. The large bolt goes through the center of the metal plate and has a hole drilled though the threads. Must be like a drain cock.

So what gives?

[Sniper]

Pictures would help

[Bingster]

Okay.

[Doug&Deb]

Are you saying one doesn’t have a sediment bowl? If so it’s an export pump for rh drive.

[Bingster]

Oh, so the previous owner used the wrong pump.  I post some photos.

[Bingster]

On the left, bowl type. On the right, bolt type. 

[Doug&Deb]

I had one on my D24. It was an export pump. Perhaps the steering shaft on rh drive interfered with the sediment bowl. It will work fine but I would add a filter between the pump and carb.

[Bingster]

Thanks. I'm going to rebuild the bowl type.  They look more vintage.

[Bingster]

By export, do you that AC/Airtex made the pump here for export across the seas, like Britain?

 

 

[Doug&Deb]

That’s my guess. I bought mine at Napa and they referred to it as an export version. 

[Bingster]

Mmmm.  Very interesting!

[desoto1939]

some pump manufacturers made FP with the galss bowel and some did not.  The galss bowel was primarily for the mechanic and cr owner to see if there was any sediment gathering in the bowel and then they coud clean out the glass bowel. Also it let them know they they had a rust line or crap being pulled up fromt he gas tank.

 

I have not seen in any of my literature any FP marked as export only but I am not an expert on this topic.  Either type of FP will work so lon as it is compatible to a 588 FP.

 

If you do not have the glass bowel on the FP then put an extra metal filter with a glass bowel just before the carb to catach any sediment and then you can check on the condition when you lift or open the hood.

 

Rich Hartung

Desoto1939@aol.com

[DonaldSmith]

Rust line or crap in the bowel?  I should hope not.  (I think he means bowl.)  Sorry, i couldn't help myself.  I'll go to the corner.  (The walls say "Andy was here".) 

[Bingster]

After watching numerous fuel pump rebuild videos by Then & Now,  I've solved my pump identification mystery. I bought the rebuild kit and was going to rebuild the used #588 pump that I got online very cheap.  I was holding the two pumps in my hands and noticed one felt heavier than the other. You'd think that I would have noticed this earlier, but the 588 pump was lighter than the pump I took off my car.

 

In comparing the two pumps, all of the design details were there on both, but the pump I took off my car has the casting much more defined than the 588. And it was much beefier than the 588. In other words, the 588 was designed as more of an approximation than an actual direct copy.

 

That cover with the bolt off my car threw me, though.  I thought it meant that the pump was another type just with no bowl. Upon closer inspection, there were the two indentations in the pump body for the glass bowl bail, indicating that originally this pump had a glass bowl.

 

In watching a Then and Now video, I saw that on one pump he was rebuilding, there was a metal dome where a glass one would normally be. That's when I knew that somebody had probably rebuilt my pump off the car and replaced their bowl with this metal disc.

 

The pump from my car also has a Mopar number sequence. I couldn't find it in the parts book but it has to be an original. I think. The 588 pump has no serial number.

 

That is my theory on the whole deal. The rebuild kit is first class.  And the rebuild seems very basic and easy.

 

[desoto1939]

Binster: I have a 39 Desoto and have had the car for 35 years.  I changed my FP on this car and when I took the one that came with the car it still had the Manufacturer tag attached to the main body of the FP and  was marked as AC-588.  I do not know if the pump had been replaced but I have to assume it had been over the years. The iriginal owner drove the car from 1939-1965.  The engine was rebuilt by the 2nd owner and it might have been changed at that time.

 

From all of my catalogs the AC588 is the replacement pump for these cars and yours also.  Some pumps came with the glass bowl and others did not. The lack of or the use of the glass sediment bowl does not matter and does not affect the pumping of fuel to the carb.

 

The glass bowl was a way that the mechanics could view if there was any sediment in the bowl and this made it easier for them to drop the glass bowl and cleanout the FP bowl. It also let them know if there might be crap in the fuel line.

 

So either FP pump will work fine for your car. I prefer the glass bowl for the stated above reasons. I also have a secondary glass gas filter just prior to the line running into the carb as a secondary filter and it also is easier to remove the glass bowl on this filter since it is at the carb area to clean.

 

Do not use a plastic fuel filter near the carb and above the intake manifold. i have seen where plastic has melted, and the gas has caught on fire. Yes, you can purchase these plastic filters at swap meets for a couple of dollars but when they are installed just above the manifold, they are a potential fire hazard.

 

I use an AC metal housing with the glass bowl model AC GF48  they cost around $30 and have an internal replacement paper filter.  Check on ebay there are several listed.

 

Rich Hartung

Desoto1939@aol.com