Carter Rotary Vane fuel pump ID

[Pat_n_Pat]

I have two Carter Rotary Vane electric fuel pumps, and I am trying to figure out if they are 6 or 12 volt. Neither has any part number (the number on the label is the part number for the label).

I do know that a 12 volt version of the Carter Rotary Vane pump will run fine on 6 volts. The pump will just perform at about 75% efficiency on 6 volts.

What will happen if I run a 6 volt pump on 12 volts? I know that 6 volt wiring is heavier than 6 volt wire (necessary to carry the amperage), but what will happen with rotary pump? :confused:

I know that Carter has been making these for a very long time (WWII). It could be possible that no marking means 6 volt, and 12 volt pumps are marked as 12 volt.

I have tried to contact Carter, but there has been no response to my inquiries. Any info/ideas for checking would help.

Thanks, Pat

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

Pat, don't have an answer for you, but another question. Are there any pictures of your avitar car in the gallery? I have searched, but if there are, I did not find them.

Thanks

Ben

[Pat_n_Pat]

Ben: I just posted a few to the Gallery. Thanks for asking.

Pat

Edited December 2, 2010 by Pat_n_Pat
spelling (see edit history)

[rons49]

In recent times the only Carter 6v rotary vane pump is Part#p4259.If you run a 6v pump on 12 v it will burn out the motor quickly. if you run a 12v on 6v,you may experience a differant problem. I did that with a Carter 60430 Carator(gear driven). That pump uses gas to lubricate the gears. When I stored the car for a month or so, in hot weather, the pump failed to start without get below a tapping on the pump a bit. I deduced that the 12v pump did not have enough voltage (actual was 5.5Volts at the pump through the ignition switch ) to actuate an inital surge to start pumping. Almost but not quite. So... NG for priming or electric only application. The same may occur with the rotary,albeit, without damage. Hook up to a 6v battery see how much fuel it pumps into a one gallon container.20 gal per hour should be fine but less than pump specs of 30-60. You will need a pressure regulator as well.

[Pat_n_Pat]

Hi Rons49:

Thanks for your input; we wil check the output of the pumps.

Carter was making 6 volt rotary vane pumps in the 40's. Back then I think they were all 6 volt.

I am not familiar with issues of using a 12 volt carator pump you mentioned. However, we know of a few Great Race/VCRA/Hemmings Challenge competitors that have used a 12 volt rotary vane on a 6 volt car successfully when a 6 volt was not available.

There is no part number of my two rotary vane pumps, consequently I cannot tell if they are 4070's or 4259's. We now have a barn full of parts for just about who-knows-what, and it is time to use what we already have instead of buying something new every time we need a part!

We run auxiliary pumps on all of our cars; we had to run the entire 2010 Hemming's Challenge '41 Packard on our electric pump. We also had to run the last 1500 miles of the 2007 Great Race on our electric pump after the stock pump failed on our '56 Thunderbird (of course, it was 12 volt).

We will be running these pumps in parallel on a 1931 Buick Indy Racer which is now converted to 12 volts. It has a pressure regulator (as do all of our electric fuel pump cars) and runs 4 Winfield carbs. We plan to pull the carbs and replace with a pair of two-throats as low-end torque is far more important than high-end.

We can use these as 6 volt or 12 volt pumps, we just need to know what they are.