Very interesting.
Although I have had fuel pump issues with 11 cars in 4 years, I haven't found a
single one of them to have the problem that you describe. All of my 413's
required new fuel pumps in that time. Two of them, and my 354 Hemi still didn't
pull fuel even with the new pumps. In each of those cases, I found that there
was an air leak in one of the flex-lines between the tank and the pump. In the
case of a certain 1948 automobile I am working on from Ford, that is notorious
for doing what you describe, I discovered that the gasket around the glass bowl
fuel filter(which is attached to the pump)was cracked, which led to the same
problem, no fuel/sucking air.
Guess I have just been lucky, or maybe having a worn or short fuel pump push
rod is enough to cause a no fuel condition with a small air leak, while a nice
new long one can compensate for it. Like you, after my discovery I found myself
replacing the same part in each car automatically, but mine was the flex-lines
instead of the push rod.
Paul
In an email dated Tue, 11 May 2004 2:38:41 pm GMT, Kerry Pinkerton
<pinkertonk@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
>I've changed quite a few fuel pumps on various mopars but the last two
>have taught me something. I could NOT get my 300 to pick up fuel. I
>had the pump off a half dozen times before I decided it just wasn't
>getting any stroke from the pushrod. Removing the allen plug, I dropped
>the pushrod and looked it over. It's made to have a small turned area
>on each end and I noticed the turned end looked shorter on one end than
>the other. Since I have a couple 413's in the corner, I pulled the rod
>from one and to my surprise it was about 1/4 inch longer and showed no
>signs of the wear that the one that came out of the 383 did. When I put
>the 'new' pushrod in the 383, she fired right up and starts instantly.
>
>This past weekend, Jay King called me broken down in Huntsville. Car
>just died and we suspected the fuel pump. New pumps were relatively
>easy to get and although we didn't have all the correct tools, I had it
>swapped out in an hour or so. Cranked it over and no gas... Hummm
>
>Out came the allen plug and the pushrod and sure enough it was about
>1/4" short on one end. Of course the pushrod is not a stock item but it
>came it yesterday and as soon as I installed it the car fired right up.
>
>I'm assuming this is a wear item that is supposed to wear before the cam
>lobe does.
>
>The moral of this story is that in the future when I run into what feels
>like fuel delivery issues, I'll probably suspect the pushrod before I
>assume it was the fuel pump.
>
>Btw, Advance can get them overnight for about 18 bucks.
>
>Kerryp
>http://Wheelingmachines.com
>http://dte.net/57imperial
>
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