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521 fuel supply problemo


pliggity

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so... after a couple of days of tinkering with this truck, here's the rundown...

 

saturday while driving, the truck sputtered & died & i thought that i'd ran out of gas... so i walked to the station and filled a can, poured the 1.5 gallons in... nothing, even though my gas gauge was NOT reading empty...

 

pulled plugs & cleaned them off, getting spark, all tune up parts are fairly new.

 

FiveOneOh Ray hooked a brother up and dropped off a fuel pump for me, at my door step no less!!! Put the new pump in.... NOTHING!!! So I pulled the carb off and apart, blew through it, cleaned out the fuel bowl & put new fuel in it, and put it back together...

 

IT FIRED!!! But as soon as the carb was empty, the truck died again. So, there is no fuel @ the fuel filter (*read: bone dry!) I traced the fuel lines from the filter back to the tank, and only found 1 rubber hose that I think may be a problem... it is sort of pinched under the gas-filler tube, and on top of the frame, so I think maybe it was worn thin, and now has a pin-hole, and upon sucking air into the hose, it is collapsing it, therefore not allowing fuel to leave the tank?

 

Does that make sense to anybody? Either what I just babbled out, or what is happening to the truck??

 

Thanks in advance! I planned on pulling the motor out this weekend to do a clutch & rear main seal, but I don't want to create any more problems before I fix the current one!

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This is a 38 year old vehicle. Chances are there is some crud in the tank. Temporary fix, blow air back into the tank from the tank side of the fuel filter, it should blow the crud away from the tank strainer. This will get you going again, for a little while.

Permanant fix, pull the gas tank out of the truck, and clean it out.

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well, i'm not sure... this is the 1st datto engine pull i'll have under my belt. any other engine i've taken apart, the rear main seal means pulling the oil pan off... again, not a major concern for now... i'd like to have the truck running before i take it apart tho.

 

unless, i can do it by mouth...i can't blow air through anything... my truck is stranded in my apartment parking garage... i have no access to an air tank, and have a 50 piece set of some shitty, made-across-too-many-oceans tools that are not of much help...

 

i'm fearing that i may have ruined a perfectly good fuel pump also, by not having any fuel make it through it... will it smoke the pump if it's dry?? if so, sounds like i'm buying 2 of them!

 

how hard to drop the tank & clean it out?? 2 belly straps like most pickup tanks? i'm not sure how long i'll be able to keep working on my truck in the apartment garage before someone complains.

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make a chezzy gas can with a hose and route it to the fuel pump and get it started. if runs OK then you know the pump is good and motor is fine.

Now remove this fire hazzard and work on cleaning the tank or finding why gas is not going up front.

 

a mechincal fuel pump isnt going to break your not using it long enough to break. How is it going to break if the truck isnt starting???????

matter of fact just stick it in a gas cam and pump the arm and it should shott gas after 2-3 pumps.

 

PS make sure you get new filter otherwise if that tank has alot of dirt and rust it will glog up the carb and idle jet!!!!!!!

 

the main seal? Dont you have to pull the motor out to remove the pan? I dont think the oil pan come offs off due to things being in the way.

 

Buy a set of USA Craftsmans tools at Christmans instead of fancy shocks and other go fast pimping stuff.(not really needed)

 

A broken car/truck at a Apartment complex is one step away from being towed to the junk yard

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OK. On my way to Shmucks for some hose to rig up a "fuel tank" ... but is my thought about the collapsing rubber fuel hose a relative idea?

 

As far as the oil pan/rear main seal... thats what I thought too, which is why I had planned to pull the engine. Plus I need to clean up the engine bay, and re-do some wiring. I don't want to climb under my philthy ass leaking truck to work on it!! I'll post up what I come up with! Thanks.

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oh, and i used to be a tech at a dyno shop.... but things have kinda sucked the last couple of years... basically, i used to have a big ass snap-on roll cab with a grip of tools! now...i'm patiently and pain-stakingly trying to build back my collection.... my collection of which i will not BUY any craftsman tools.

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OK, so first, I had a nice 2x jim beam & coke to calm down... then once I had a good enough safety meeting I went to work!

 

I ran a 4 ft hose into a 2 gallon can....outside of the engine bay... sprayed the hell out of the carb with some ether & BOOM! backfire mushroom cloud ball of flame out of the carb.... and VROOOM!!!! purrring like a lion!

 

I blew backwards through the line from the fuel filter that runs back to the tank, with and without the gas cap on... I could hear the air running through.. Put a new fuel filter in, hooked everything back up and its seemingly good to go...

 

I'm guessing something clogged up one of the hoses somewhere down the line. I'll try and make time this weekend to pull the tank out and give it a good look over while I have the engine out already.

 

In the mean time, does anybody have a used/good fuel pump they'd sell me?

 

And is there anywhere around Seattle that would have a decent clutch in stock that I could go and pick up?

 

Thanks again for the help, you guys rock!

 

 

***oh, and the cheap ass tool kit I was using was from my work, and luckily just happened to be in my truck when it broke down, so i of course used them... if not for them, i would have had it towed home a day & a half sooner instead of working on the side of the street in the rain tho ;(-

 

guess MKlotz sig goes for more than him?!!?

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whats wrong with the fuel pump on there now???? Im confused, its running.

 

I think I have a 1 or 2 pumps but you have to pick it up. In Covington (Kent east Hill )as I dont deliever FREE stuff!!!!!!!

 

I would think NAPA in Renton(the big store) would have a clutch kit maybe in stock. Call them. But if your cheap and going to pull motor anyways at least get a disc and a T/O bearing and make sure its the Correct ONE.

.If its good maybe just replace the T/O bearing. But I myself recommend getting all new stuff.

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I had/have the same problem. I started using seafoam in my truck last year and I began to have the same problems you are describing. Turns out my gas tank had some sort of liner inside . Kinda like some plastic material sprayed/coated on the inside of the tank. This stuff started to fall apart plugging my fuel line . My tank doesn't have a strainer so this stuff was clogging up the tube that feeds my fuel line. I dropped my tank and tried to remove all this crap out. Now I make sure I at least have half a tank of gas. When it would plug up on me I would just disconnect the fuel line going into the filter and blow into it . This would clear anything in the line and she would fire right up . This is just my 2 cents. Hope it helps..............

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the problem with the original pump, is the arm that goes inside the cover is bent where the spring meets up to it... i can wobble the spring by hand, and i'm not going to put it back on, so the spring can pop out and go inside my timing cover..:fu:..

 

the pump on the truck now is a loaner from Ray, who was gracious enough to let me rock this one until i can pick up another one. i could definately come by and grab one, but maybe not until the weekend.

 

i'll call Napa & see, maybe i can grab a clutch kit on the way to grab a fuel pump? i'm going to be going from downtown seattle to snoqualmie to pull the engine out... i could loop around hwy18 or something?

 

really really appreciate it!!!

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$153 for the whole kit at Action Auto, and a day out.

 

Napa said they can no longer get a kit... but they can order each individual part separately, on special order... :fu:

 

I'm waiting to hear back to see if maybe my old manager can get one for me and save me a few bucks. Either way, sounds like I can get one in the next day, so work will take place over the weekend.

 

Hainz, I'll try to figure out my schedule, maybe I can cruise south tomorrow or Friday nite??

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i have Rays rebuilt/new one... he wants it back, just said i could borrow it in the mean time...

 

tomorrow nite may work for me, but i wouldn't get out of downtown seattle until 7:30ish... if that's not too late, we can do that...otherwise, friday i can probably be out of downtown before 6.

 

can i buy you a case of beer or something??

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so was it clogged, filter, or fuel pump? just go to pull-a-part and get a pump. before you go pulling the tank remove the access door on the top of the bed and take out the fuel sending unit and look inside with a flashlight. out of all the vintage rides i've had only one had a rusty tank. it was a 65 dart. both my 521 tanks look new on the inside. if there is debris and the tank is in good shape, take the drain plug out and flush it.

 

i wish they had put that access door on the 620. some little kid put a few hand fulls of sand down the filler tube and i had to pull the tank to remove the sand.

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no, there IS A SPACER between the pump & head. i'm not sure what/why the arm bent in the way it did, it bent 1 side of the arm inwards toward the other side... so its no longer a v-shape, its closer to ll-shape now.

 

i'm thinking it was a clogged line/or screen @ the unit inside the tank. after i blew through the line towards the tank things got better... i also readjusted my carburetor for cold starts, and now it fires up 100 times better on cold mornings! i had it set a bit too rich, so it was rough cold.

 

i'll definately pull the sender & check out inside the tank this weekend. i am going to pull the engine out this weekend still, so i will include this in my to-do list. should be running champ by sunday!!

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