Well after months of drama with this vehicle, here are my findings on the Zexel rotary fuel pump. The vehicle ran well when first purchased for a towing vehicle for my trailer business, last year. It would when warm hunt on tick over which was reasonably acceptable, but difficult to start, new battery and starter Motor made it a lot better. The clutch started to slip and I had a new dual mass clutch fitted this year only done around 100 miles. After this was installed the car ran well until warm and would drop off completely on idle. Gearbox and gear change really spot on. I obtained a spare fuel pump from a similar model which started first go and ran perfectly, I actually started the car and started first go. The pump was cleaned up and I gave this to the Mechanic who had changed the clutch.
From here things went downhill and when installed he had 2 faults.
No 14 Diesel fuel Temperature Sensor System
No 26 Control sleeve position sensor system
Engine starts but runs erratic and blows smoke
Pump is ME 190711 109144-3062
The initial problem was a suspected mistiming as it is easy to be tooth out. The Mechanic has given up as he cannot clear the faults. I spoke with a company who gave good advice on the pump Merlin Diesel Systems, who said it should work and that timing was an issue or an electrical fault. They quoted £210 to check the pump whereas a full service pump is £2500 + VAT which makes the car overly expensive. The Mechanic took 14 hours to remove the old and replace with new. So currently I have no towing vehicle. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Some points to consider as I may offer this vehicle up for sale. Chassis good / Oil change on engine and all diffs and transfer boxes / MOT / new starter motor and Battery / new water temperature sensor for the ECU. New 4 WD solenoids and change vacuum lines / still a fault but I know it is a sensor on gearbox or vac tube on top of the gearbox after clutch change out / new fuel filter system including priming pump cracking alloy wheels / leather trim / large sunroof / nice bull bar and 13 pin rear socket. Great to drive in the Devon lanes.
I would welcome any sage advice. Merlin sent out an instruction sheet for timing which I sent to the Mechanic who says timing is perfect, but I disagree. If I spent the money on a recon unit and then the cost of refitting is huge if there is a fault. There were no faults on the replacement pump on the original vehicle and there were no faults on the original pump removed.

 

Another point of interest was that these pumps had history of playing up and causing these issue, however according to Merlin Diesels they are excellent pumps and the root cause for the problem is water on these models gets into fuel tank via filler due to corrosion and hence the issues. I would tend to agree with them unless they are trying to sell me a recon unit.