Failing fuel pump

[Flathead Fever]

Back when I use to play with this stuff, I had a bunch of spare electric pumps. When I wasn't sure what was clogged or not working, I would bypass all of the car's stuff and I ran an electric pump from a gallon of gas sitting on the passenger floor straight to the carb and went for a ride. That eliminated the entire fuel system but just the carb. I took somebody along to make damn sure the can of gas didn't fall over. I've had floats that rubbed on the sidewalls of carbs and shut the fuel off. I've had fuel pumps pump at just enough pressure to run down the hill but then vapor lock while driving at 5000' up in the mountains. the pumps on 350 Chevy Suburban's that had worn to where they put out just one pound of pressure less than they were supposed to would run at 1000' level but vapor lock at 5000'. That took me awhile to figure out.

I've had that accessory fuel regulators fail more than once, the ones you twist to set the pressure. I will never use one again to lower the fuel pressure. I had a '66 Austin Mini Cooper S that would shut the fuel off going down the road. I got out, opened the hood and reset the regulator and it ran for another week but then it did it again. I bought two more adjustable regulators that they did the same thing; it might take a week of driving but then it would just run out of fuel going down the road. I finally got rid of all that aftermarket crap and put a stock pump on it and that cured it.

I had a low mileage original paint '57 T-Bird that my grandfather bought new. It sat in his garage for years before he died. I could not get it to pump fuel. It would run and stay running if I first filled the carb up. If let the fuel evaporate from the carb I could not get it to prime cranking the engine. It had a cloth covered fuel line from the engine to the firewall. My grandfather had bought all the extra stuff he thought he would ever need for that T-Bird including that Ford cloth cover fuel line with the brass fittings on each end. He kept all the new spare parts in peanut butter jars. I took that new fuel line out of the jar with the Ford tag on it, and it felt brand new, nice and flexible. Just for fun I covered it in soapy water and blew through it, and bubbles came out from one end to the other. I could not tell it was cracked with the cloth covering over it. Over 30 plus years of working on this stuff I thought I knew it all but then something breaks in an all knew way just to screw with me.