Those of us who have suffered failures of the ‘new’ SU fuel pumps (four in 4 years) will reluctantly have looked for alternatives. The ideal would be an original SU pump which never seemed to fail. Failing that, there’s the non-Mini Facet pump which I have gone for.
There are of course a few problems. You can’t just bolt it into the original SU pump mounting holes in the subframe because the Facet mounting points are at right angles to the direction of the fuel flow, which would mean the fuel pipe sticking out into the centre of the subframe. Not a good idea.
But I realised the original holes could be used in a different way. I mounted one of the Facet feet into the rear original hole in the subframe and rotated it so the fuel outlet faced forward. I then cut a 100mm length of flat steel and bolted it to the front original hole and offered it up to the other Facet mounting donut. See below.
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I marked the steel bar and drilled a hole for the second Facet mounting point. The picture shows the finished setup.
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I have shown it with the bar below the subframe so it’s easier to see how it fits. To finish I moved the steel bar above the subframe (sorry I forgot to take a picture). It needed a large loop of rubber hose at the front because the metal fuel pipe was so close.
I'm sure others have tried other mounting methods (boot, under seat, under the dash), but I wanted the pump under the car and in the same place and with as little work as possible. I hope this helps others.
The pump works well, but it is a little disconcerting that it continues to tick when the floats are full. Of course you can't hear the tick when the car is running.
