The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Fuel Pump Cam Wiped?

As some of you may remember from another thread, my truck appeared to be suffering from vapor lock. No fuel was reaching the carburetor.

When the line was disconnected at the carb inlet, there was virtually nothing but air present.

The line was then removed at the outlet side of the fuel pump. When the starter was pressed, a trickle of fuel spritzed out but was primarily nothing but air. This led me to believe that the pump had failed and a new Carquest fuel pump was installed. The same results were seen. Zero fuel was making its way out of the fuel pump.

With both pumps it was verified that fuel was indeed present at the intake side of the pump. That's one advantage of the gravity fed tank in the cab.

The first pump was installed in May 2021. It has been working more or less perfectly until the recent trouble. A couple of incidents recently that I attributed to vapor lock or stuck carb float, I now believe were the precursors to the present condition.

As you can see, the Carquest pump has wear on the arm in just a small area when compared to the original glass bowl pump removed a year and a half ago.

I took pictures of the cam in case anybody's interested. I don't know if there's any information to be gleaned from those photos but who knows?

What caused this? Is this "normal" on a 72 year old 216? I've never had anything like it occur on any vehicle I've ever owned and the only vehicles I've ever owned in my life are antiques.

Since it's virtually impossible to install the fuel pump incorrectly, what do you think caused this? Even if the new pump was installed incorrectly, it doesn't explain the sudden failure of the first fuel pump resulting in identical symptoms.

I installed both pumps again today just to see if I achieved different results. Nothing has changed. I may install the original glass bowl pump just to see what happens but that one was done in by ethanol many years ago.

It should be noted that there was fuel present in the first Carquest pump when I removed it from the engine. Working the arm manually resulted in large spurts of fuel so I'm pretty sure the fuel pump isn't defective. And what would be the likelihood that a brand new fuel pump wouldn't pump a drop right out of the box. It creates suction when working it manually in your hand.