Well crap. Would you run it?

[clay]

Lost about 1/4" of the bakelite fuel pump pedestal down the engine. Sounds like it's grinding around the distributor drive gear right now (turning engine by hand).

Would you run the engine with it in, or tear the f'er down to get the piece out?

Follow on question...anybody know what rods the new fuel pumps from VW are supposed to use (type 1 engine)? Pump is for engines with alternators so I used a short rod (pump didn't come with one). Something was very wrong, and now I have a rod that looks more like a hockey stick.

[paolo]

not sure of answer, but would suspect not to run it, would deffo wait until someone with some tech knowledge answers, better safe than sorry

[68IIIbuggy]

You should be able to fish the piece out if you pull the oil pump out. Probably no reason to tear it further.

[Volktales]

The alternator style fuel pump rod is 4 inches long, shorter than the 4 1/4 inch rod for the standard type pump. Surprised that rod could bend. I would be worried about chunkys floating around in the crankcase. Hopefully you will be able to get it all out with the oil pump pulled like 68IIIBuggy suggests.

[clay]

Yeah, the rod I used was 1/4" shorter than the others...so I'm also puzzled on just wth went wrong there. Never seen that happen before.