Imperial Car Club Forum

I have a '57 Imperial. I just had the fuel pump rebuilt and am having an issue getting it to work once it's in. I had it all hooked up and it's not pulling gas. I disconnected the fuel line to it, and there's no suction when the engine turns over. The pump seems fine, I worked the lever as much as I could and there was suction. What am I missing? Is there a trick to where the arm needs to go to make it work?

Thanks!

I'm at the step right before you. I rebuilt my fuel pump on my 57 and I couldn't get that pump to move by hand at all, so I have not installed that one yet. I assume I screwed something up when rebuilding it, even though it seemed very straight forward.

I did install an aftermarket one without issue though, and it has been working for the past year. I don't recall there being any trick to get it working, it just went on the side of the block with the lever sticking in, and it worked.

Are you sure the fuel line is not clogged or kinked or something that would block the flow?

The arm on the pump (I had mine rebuild by Now and Then... so I assume it's correct) doesn't easily move by hand. I had to put a lot of muscle into it to get it to move... it didn't move much, and I did get a bit of suction there. I know all of the gas in the car basically evaporated over the winter so there isn't even gas in the fuel filter right now, maybe that's related? We checked the line and it isn't clogged.

Well, one thing you could do is pull the in-bound fuel line off the fuel pump and hold your hand over it while you crank the ignition. If you feel it sucking, it's working and your problem is elsewhere down the line.

Hey Adam did you ever get your fuel pump figured out? I see Klucky hasn't been on the forum since last May 28. Wonder how he did.

I still have the aftermarket one installed on mine and its working fine. Not sure how Klucky's situation turned out.