Lucas EPIC fuel not appearing at injectors after rebuild

[red_dwarfers]

I carefully rebuilt my Lucas EPIC injection pump over the winter months after I noticed fuel dripping past the seals while running. The car was running well otherwise aside from the injection pump needing priming if it hadn't been run for a few days.

Once the pump had been resealed along with a new stop solenoid plunger and spring I filled it with fuel and fitted it back to the car but wasn't able to get it running properly. Once bled through to the injectors there was fuel appearing but not consistently. It ran for a few seconds if the accelerator pedal was down but this soon ended and I was getting less and less fuel at the injectors.

I've had a break from working on the XM for a while but have decided to have another go.

I went out this evening and bled the fuel filter and piping via the nipple on top the inlet of the pump, there were a couple of small bubbles but otherwise good.
I then turned over the engine to see if I got any life, none.
Next I unscrewed the injector pipes from the tops of the injectors placing a rag under the pipes along with a piece of tissue paper to make it easier to see any fuel and the quantity that was coming out. Turning over the engine a decent amount leaving breaks to prevent the starter from burning out, no fuel aside from a small drip on all of them which could have been residual.
I took off the return pipe on the pump, stuck a rag around it then turned the engine over. Fuel was being pumped out as I would expect proving that the lift pump is working correctly. I guess this doesn't prove that the stop solenoid has released even though it will have been requested to by the keypad immobiliser?
I have connected the Lexia and cleared all the fault codes, no new ones have been logged.
I can view the parameters okay and can see things happening when the engine is turned over.
In the actuator tests, I have ran the cam + and - (I think it was the cam?) as that was the only test which could be run with the engine off and could hear it clicking away.

I haven't yet removed the injector pipes from the side of the pump but I think that might be my next step.
After that, all I can think of is to remove the pump and strip it down again to see if I can notice anything obviously wrong.
What do you reckon? Anything I've missed?


Resource wise, I have:
a spare non working stripped down Lucas EPIC
A brand new boxed Bosch 2.1 pump
A spare known working 2.1 engine and gearbox with Bosch pump



So some way or another I can get the car running however I don't really want to lose the originality of the car and fit a Bosch pump. It would also mean I need to faff around with changing the sprocket, injectors, pipes and mounting studs.

If I did have to, I realise I would lose the trip computer function and the engine light would stay on. Would there be an issue with the rev counter and speedo?
The Lucas EPIC is fly by wire but it does have a cable up to a sensor. I imagine I could just use the cable straight onto the pump.

[kangoo michael]

Hi I've just seen your old fuel pump topic and I was wondering if you found an answer to your problem as I have a similar problem ' thanks