Fuel Pump info

[Stewart, Joe (COX-Atlanta)]

>why do you ground yourself while working ona a fuel pump ?

Actually, you are both right, sorta.

On Mike's credit, I myself have done about 50 or 60 DSM fuel pump installs,
plus one certain Chevy mini van [Jay shudders at the memory] and never had any
problems. I don't do any special grounding either. I know tons of mindless DSM
dudes who do this, and I have never heard of anyone blowing themselves up, and
by God these would be the people to do it. My brother is an ASE certified and
Mitsubishi certified dealer tech who does fuel pump recalls all day long for
Mitsubishi. I just called him and asked, there was nothing in his ASE training
or his Mitsubishi training about grounding and fuel pumps.

Now, on George's point about grounding. You ARE grounded, by touching the
metal in the car, you are done. Sparks come by voltage differentials due to
different charges in bodies. When your body touches the part you are working
on, you are done. I have a lot of experience on this from several years doing
component level repair on circuit boards. The trick is always to touch a large
grounded part of the object you are grabbing, and you will never have a
problem. If you ground yourself to "earth" and the part you are grabbing has a
different charge than earth, then you just wasted your time. Ground yourself
to what you are working on, and don't worry about the rest.

-Jay