C3 Fuel pump

[Bob I.]

I have the orginal fuel pump on my car 1970 350/350.
1- Can it be rebuilt if so can you tell me were.
2- I have a hard time starting the car for the first time. No problem afterwards. The carb was rebuilt recently. Could this be related to the fuel pump.

[Mark #28455]

Re: C3 Fuel pump

Not as likely to be the fuel pump as the carb or fuel. When was the last time you drove the car before the carb was rebuilt. New gasoline has a 50% vaporization temp of about 150 degrees Farenheit at atmospheric pressure - so, the fuel in your carb bowl will boil off pretty easily and then you restart with a dry carb. Try some racing fuel and see if the problem disappears.

When you re-installed the carb, did you use the correct thick carb base gasket that acts as a heat shield? Is the choke working properly?

Mark

[Joe L.]

Re: C3 Fuel pump

Bob------

I do not recommend rebuilding these crimped style fuel pumps. However, it can be done. The only one that I know of that does it on a custom basis (i.e. not a mass commercial rebuilder) is Paul Baker at Goat Hill Classics. Others have reported problems here, though, so beware if you go that route.

For a driven car I highly recommend just getting a new pump. I DEFINITELY don't recommend keeping a 37 year old fuel pump on the car. You are "living on borrowed time". The new pump will be about 95% accurate with respect to original configuration. You can keep the original one for some future judging purposes if you so desire but, to me, for the points involved I wouldn't ever really consider putting it on the car again.

Your starting problems could be related to the fuel pump, but I doubt it. In any event, as I mentioned, you should replace this fuel pump right away, anyway. Then, you'll know if the starting problems are related to the fuel pump. More likely, the initial starting problem is due to slow drain-down of fuel in the fuel bowl. This often occurs due to leaking soft plugs in the base of the fuel bowl on a Q-Jet. It's a quite common problem and exhibits exactly the symptoms you describe.

[Bob I.]

Thanks NM *NM*

[Jim T.]

Re: C3 Fuel pump

My original 70's fuel pump lasted a lot of miles. A quick check on your hard starting problem you mentioned for the first time, take a small amount of fresh gas and inject it into the front of the carb and see if the car will start immediately or try to start depending on how much gas you use. If it does try to start or run immediately most likely your fuel pump is ok and the carb is losing fuel from the fuel bowl and cannot provide fuel to start the car untill the fuel pump is used with longer cranking to get fuel into the carb. I use a syringe to inject fuel into carbs, easy to suction into the syringe and put the fuel where you want it.