Carter fuel pump, core grade for rebuilding purposes. This is a original Carter, button top fuel pump stamped 4385S. This is the style with "CARTER" and USA, has the 3/8" fuel nipple. Correct for 1968-69 Mercury Cougar with X or S code 390 engines and 1968-69 Ford and Mustang with 390 V-8 engines. The stampings on the housing edge is usually pretty light, sometimes the date stamp is not legible. These are so tough to find in the wild, that unless we have multiples and legible dates, we will not post the dates.
Expect to receive a dirty but complete fuel pump as removed from a car in the wrecking yard. Our cores are finite, and the sum total of 30 plus years of scrapping Cougars. Meaning a very limited supply.
There seems to be only one rebuilder of "crimp" style Carter Fuel pumps. That man is Fred Ballard. With prior arrangement, we can drop ship directly to Fred.
Fred provided us with the following information as of January 2024:
I am working on completing my 41st run. I have done over 2,300 of these pumps so far. I generally only do 2 or 3 runs per year based on customer needs although this year could be more. They are done in batches with a minimum of 20 units due to the cost of the plating.
The restoration is $275 plus $30 return shipping in the lower 48 states. If you have a Hipo 289 pump, there is an additional charge of $50 for each pump for the extremely high insurance on these pumps. This service needs to be prepaid and a personal or company check is the preferred method of payment. The check needs to be made out to Chase. The pumps are disassembled, cleaned, replated and rebuilt with diaphragms and valves compatible with current ethanol laced fuels. If you are planning to send yours in, please reply to this email with your contact and shipping information including phone number as I copy and paste this information to the FedEx shipping document when the pump is completed. This helps to preclude the possibility of any typing error on my part. The service takes about one month from the time that I begin the disassembly process. If your fuel pump has a fuel filter canister on it, I encourage you to remove the canister and keep it at your place. If you are unable to remove the canister, I can deal with it but removal of it when you are unable to do so sometimes involves aggressive actions on my part to remove it possibly rendering the canister unusable in the future.
I also offer what I call a "survivor" rebuild where the exterior of the pump will be pretty much as how you removed it from the car but with the internals replaced. "Survivor" pumps have a much quicker turn around as there is no loss of time for plating. If you are sending in a "survivor", please make sure that you write this in several places on the outside of the box as I give those pumps immediate attention. In regards to a price difference between a restoration and a "survivor", there is none. Due to the special handing involved with a "survivor", it actually costs me more to do them. I keep the price down as a service to the hobby.
I seem to be the only one in the world currently doing these pumps. If you Google "crimped fuel pump rebuild" my name is the only one that comes up.
Best regards,
Fred Ballard
28916 Flowerpark Drive
Canyon Country, Ca. 91387-1801
661-251-2362