Today I finally found the time to replace the leaking fuel pump of my 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III. It probably leaked because I did not drive the car for a longer period of time last year. It seems that there is a gasket inside which leaked when the car was parked for a few days. After a few minutes it would stop leaking, but of course this had to be fixed. I ordered a new fuel pump from Rock Auto and got a Carter pump. It does come with new gaskets as well.

The fuel pump is not exactly easy to replace because of its location and very limited accessibility to the two mounting screws.

I had to remove the oil filter and also loosened the power steering pump to slide it away to get better access to the two screws. First you have to remove the two fuel lines and then you have to try to get the two bolts loose which hold the pump in place, which takes a lot patience.
The problem is that although you can get to the bolts with a 9/16th socket and a swivel with some extensions, but as soon as you are loosening the bolt the socket will hit the housing of the pump and you can no longer turn the bolt and unscrew any further. A stupid design…
I only got it the bolts out with a crowfoot wrench and some extensions. It took me 3!!! hours to get these two bolts out!!! All the time you have to work from underneath the car - there is no way to get it out through the engine bay.

Once the old pump was out I glued the new gasket to the new pump with silicone adhesive and slid the new pump back in. Once again I had to wrestle the two bolts back in. After about another hour I had everything back together. Changing a fuel pump on my Cadillacs takes around 20 minutes and is an easy job. On the Lincoln it is a real pain in the a***e…

The Lincoln is now ready for the cruising season and is happily idling along again.
There are only two bolts you have to unscrew to get the pump out. But they both are very well hidden…

As you can see on the removed pump the socket will hit the housing of the pump after only a few turns and thats why you can´t fully unscrew it with a socket.
As demonstrated here I had to use a crowfoot wrench to get the bolts out, which takes a very long time…

Tags:1971, Lincoln, Lincoln Mark III Repair Tip, Restoration, Fuel Pump