GMB mechanical fuel pump failures

[Carl Beck]

GMB 550-8040 Fuel Pump Failures:

I have contacted and am now working with GMB of North America;  in an attempt to identify the issue of infant mortality aka premature failure on their mechanical fuel pumps for our Z's. The issue has been widely discussed over the past couple years on different Z Car Forums and Face Book Pages. 

 

GMB Product Management has ask me if we could return 3 or 4 of these failed fuel pumps directly to them, so they can attempt to identify the problem. If you have kept one of these pumps that failed, would you be willing to package it up and return it directly to either me, or them? If so please contact me directly and we will work out the details - In addition to a response here - an Email would be best as it is most direct and easy to file/track.   Email:  beck@becksystems.com  Please Put "GMB Fuel Pump" in the Subject Line

[wheee!]

[mention]zKars [/mention] has already researched and solved the issue I believe.

[siteunseen]

 

[Carl Beck]

Hi Guys:

Thanks for the replies. I was aware of @zKars Posts and several other discussions here on the subject. When I initially contacted GMB about the issue, I gave them a brief summary from the Customers perspective along with hyper-links to several on-line discussions, 3 from the Classic Z Car Club’s forum. I also included links to the reviews from Amazon.com

 

It seems from the Amazon Reviews - that they have been selling this pump since 2015. The Reviews on Amazon seem to be 5 Star in the 2015 to 2018 period, but then from 2018 to today they were getting 1 Star reviews. No one I could find had contacted them about their faulty product - so I thought it might be good to contact them and see what if anything they would do about it.

 

I think all of us were happy GMB was providing a mechanical pump that “looked right”, and perhaps we all expected it to perform at least close to the OEM units in terms of reliability. I was hoping that once directly notified,  GMB would address / correct the issue, and provide us with a pump that could be used for more than just donor parts. 

[Zed Head]

GMB should pay zKars a substantial sum.  If they follow up on what he found he probably saved a large percentage of their business.  The valving design is common to many many other brands.

It's all right there in his thread.  The work has been done.

[zKars]

49 minutes ago, Zed Head said:

GMB should pay zKars a substantial sum.  If they follow up on what he found he probably saved a large percentage of their business.  The valving design is common to many many other brands.

It's all right there in his thread.  The work has been done.

i'll split it with you. I think we both get half of nothing...

[70z4fun]

I think we have two of their pumps here, but they are new,  I assume that is no use to them or you?

[Carl Beck]

4 hours ago, 70z4fun said:

I think we have two of their pumps here, but they are new,  I assume that is no use to them or you?

Thanks forechecking in - we want to send them some of the failed pumps, so they can determine for themselves what the problem is. (it's a corporate thing...LOL). I have 3 new one's myself I bought as future "donors". 

[Freez74]

I also purchased of these 550-8040 pumps to have on hand as a spare, as I have no idea how long my original Nikki pump may last.  After reading this post, I got the GMB pump out of the box and tested the suction.  I pushed the lever up against a wall with my finger over the inlet pipe, and very little suction occurred!  I don't know if it would even be able to suck fuel out of the tank.  Should I just save this pump for parts and buy one of the stamped dome-top pumps for a spare?  Do they work any better?

[Zed Head]

10 minutes ago, Freez74 said:

  Should I just save this pump for parts and buy one of the stamped dome-top pumps for a spare?  Do they work any better?

You could do what zKars wrote about, linked below (meta?, a link to a post in the thread being used to post the link).

Pretty clear that it will probably fail.  If it were me I'd contact GMB and see if they'll send you one of theirs after they fix the issue.

 

[Freez74]

That's good information, I read through it all.  I guess I'll just wait and see what becomes of this.  Thanks!

 

[siteunseen]

here's another good read from the knowledge base