If the hose is attached to the output line on the pump, it's just going to pump air or fumes into the bottle. You want to hook to the INPUT port for the pump to work. Just to move it around, do like we did at the salvage yard. We would strap a fuel can on the roof with a hose to the carburetor and let it vacuum feed through gravity. On the van, you can put it on the seat, just as long as it's higher than the carburetor. Prime it with fuel or starting fluid and once it's running, the fuel will siphon from the engine vacuum then gravity feed.

 

My goal was to use the pump to pull some gas from the tank into the bottle - i thought we were dealing with an in-tank fuel pump with a relay, not a mechanical one, so my method will obviously not work!

Instead of adding another gallon to the tank to ensure we have good pickup, i might just run clean gas right through the pump from my can - just like you said.

 

Before you guys clued me into the mechanical fuel pump, i had already put the new fuel filter back on in hopes to get some fuel flowing somehow. Gas into the Quadrajet primary worked and she tried to kick over. The good news is everything else seems to be working! We got air, spark and compression

I'm not sure if i want to rig up the clear tube to the top of the pump to test it, or if i want to just try some clean gas from the bottom of the pump out of my gas can.


New plugs in

Gasket debris

Upper fuel line coming from mechanical pump

Our first leak, coolant

It's coming from the main, but i suspect its something above it - water pump?

 

Run a hose from your gas can (with gas in it....) to the input of the fuel pump. Crank the motor. It might actually start.

Yep, drippin' from there, chances are REAL good the water pump is the source.

 

How many miles on the engine? If you're over 150,000, I'd replace the timing chain set while I was in there. I've seen water pumps that were fine when a vehicle was parked, but coolant was weak, have the seal take a set and when it starts turning, breaks the seal. You can check the timing chain for slop by rotating the engine to TDC. Mark with a sharpie, soap stone, or anything BESIDES a pencil where the rotor is pointing on the distributor. Put a white mark on the balancer. Rotate the crank backwards and see how far it moves before the rotor begins to move.. If it's more than 5 or 10 degrees, you have a lot of slop and need a new chain set.

I like these old things as you don't need a computer to work on them. A vacuum gauge, volt/ohm meter and wooden dowel rod will do most of the diagnosis you need. By the way, the reason for NO pencil to mark the rotor is pencils are graphite and will cause arcing inside the distributor cap.

 

I pulled the fuel filter to see if the pump was pulling from the tank at all, black **** (lacquer) came out. Thank god filters are cheap, but i just hope they are efficient!

Spot on! Part of this was my fault because i thought the filter was before the pump, not after.

I plummed up a fresh gallon to the correct side of the fuel pump and it started pulling juice.



After the first crank, you can already see some of the old fuel seeping back down from the pump...




After adding some more gas to the primary, it started right up!!

This is super easy to check! Great tip!

Right now we're getting the engine going to try to move it from its current spot. Once we have it in a better area i can start tearing into everything we need to get her back on the road.

 

I'm wondering if the transmission is good. Do you know why the van was parked? Does the van have working brakes? I think before I would get it running, if the brakes are working, I'd use a chain to pull the van out from the congested area where it's parked. Is this on your property? While rare, I have seen fires start when trying to start a derelict vehicle. I make sure I'm at least 20 feet from building for an initial start unless it's in a large shop. There's usually a large area around it and fire extinguishers at hand. I hope you have at least a garden hose nearby and turned on.

 

We can probably add a 1 or maybe even a 2 in front of this



Funny you should ask! After getting her to crank over i tried going through the gears to see if i get engagement from the transmission, but i got nothing. Right then the old fuel pump stopped moving juice, so i picked up a new one to throw in. Brakes seem to work and the booster has fluid. I have time to get her running in the spot its in right now, but once it is running, i'd like to move it to a better spot to continue addressing things. When i did get it running, a lot of the caked on oil started to smoke up - horrible for these B350's as the engine is quite literally in the cabin.
After reporting my fuel pump failure to the original owner, i got some more history on when it was parked. Apparently it was on its way down here to Los Angeles from San Francisco when they had difficultly with the transmission (something about shifting). They towed it here to its destination and i think it sat ever since.

Oil needs a quart (expected as i only put in 5Qt to start)

Trans fluid seems full but the color isnt so great.


Oil level

Trans level


Topped off Radiator

Overflow tank

Overflow pickup

Overflow tank inside

New fuel pump and gasket

Old Fuel Pump next to New Fuel Pump

 

A rule of them we used at the salvage yard was if an engine was bad, the transmission was probably good. If the engine was good, we'd disconnect eh pressure side of the transmission cooling line and see if it shot fluid out. If not, the trans was bad.

A little tip once you get the engine running reliably. Put the shifter into neutral to the count of 20. The front pump seal can get worn and if the transmission has been sitting, the fluid will drain out of the torque converter. Putting the shifter in neutral will let the front pump fill the converter. This may not help, but try to eliminate one thing.

If you need to replace the transmission, bypass the radiator cooling. You have all sorts of junk from the old transmission in it. The previous owner of my Ram added an auxiliary cooler in front of the radiator and left the radiator out of the loop. I've had the truck two years and towed with it with no problem.

 

That makes sense, i can definitely check the pressure side. I'd say i only had it running for about 30 seconds so definitely not enough time for the torque converter to kick in. It would be magic if i could get this thing in drive and move it down the driveway! New fuel pump is going in, so we're well on our way to a running engine.

That would be pretty neat!


If the transmission is shot, would i have a chance to purchase a second hand 4x4 version to drop in? That would be the ultimate setup for me.