Not getting fuel

[Sgtjoyce]

78 J20 - Just installed new tank, sending unit, hoses, and mechanical pump. Only old part is the metal lines along the frame rail. Starts fine with starting fluid, so it's definitely a fuel issue. There's about 8 gallons in the tank, so I think that's enough to reach the pickup. Any ideas? Don't have a compressor to blow out the metal lines, so maybe there's crap clogging it. There's no fuel coming out of the pump when I crank it over(for a while). Do I need to prime the pump somehow? I must be missing something simple

[letank]

weak pump... may be if you have the original carburetor, the motorcraft 2150 you can dump a little fuel down the carb air horn, if the engine starts, it may give it enough ooomph, rpm, to give the pump more cycles to self prime...


sometimes the line can be slightly rusted at the pick up and the pump is pumping air

[Sgtjoyce]

found the leak

After posting this it was bugging me that I never checked the metal lines. Just tried sucking on the line, didn't get any fuel. Tried blowing in the line, didn't hear bubbling in the tank. Found a little split in the rear metal line against the frame. Probably going to put a small section of rubber hose over the split as a sleeve for now. Just want it running right now, so I can look for any other engine issues. I'll replace the metal lines properly when I take the bed off.

[wiley-moeracing]

You could always run rubber fuel line for a temp fix till you can do the new metal lines.

[letank]

glad that you found the leak... the 74 has still its hard plastic line...

Rubber will be good for quite some time, it has to be checked every 5 years because it is not as good as it used to be.