There is great confusion amongst us which I have tried to correct. Let me restate. There is no benefit to disconnecting the pump inlet. The inlet is the side of the pump from the tank. If I read you disconnected the inlet and bumped the starter, you would not get gas coming out the pipe because the pump is, at that point, disconnected! Maybe I read it wrong. Anyway here is what a flow test is: Install pump on motor, CONNECT pump inlet line from tank. DISCONNECT line at carb.(carb inlet) Put disconnected carb line end into a quart container. DISCONNECT center tap on distributor so motor does not start and no sparks to cause fire. Then crank starter and watch fuel being pumped into the container as if it was being pumped into carb. You should see a fairly good pulsating stream of fuel and start to fill up container pretty fast. This test tells you that pump is good and everything, all the way back to fuel pick up tube, is good. Be SURE you have fuel in tank. All effort is being wasted until this is done. If it does not squirt very well, take off gas cap and try again. If it does squirt well, proceed to think bad carb or electrics. If you must blow air AFTER the flow test, disconnect line at sender outlet and disconnect line at pump inlet and blow to be sure line is clear, real clear. Also disconnect line at carb and at pump outlet and check that line for clear. No need to blow into tank forward or backwards. If we ever get to the point that we think something is clogged in tank we will proceed to suck from a gas can. NOT YET! You will not be able to sleep until you do a proper flow test. Be sure no rubber line is collapsing, as in: you used old rubber or not fuel line rubber.
