No fuel getting to the pump? Manual 1985 GT

[Shoegazer GT]

Last week, I had a no-start situation that had me scratching my head. After a 20 minute drive in 90 degree plus heat and a short stop at a gas station for a drink, the car started but was running a bit off, and I couldn't tell if I wasn't getting fuel, or if it was too rich, but I was able to make the 5 minute trek from the gas station to a friend's house. Shut the car down, but it wouldn't restart. I have a clear fuel filter under the hood, and usually I can see it fill with fuel, but it wasn't - and no amount of trying did anything, so we waited for about 15 minutes, and the car fired back up. We wrote it off as vapor lock, had a laugh, and went about our business.

Last night, I had the same thing happen. Shut the car down, pulled the air cleaner to adjust the carb, which I suspected was a little out of tune, and I was right - the bowl levels were too high, and when I tried to restart the car, I got nothing. The filter didn't show any fuel passing through it, and no amount of waiting got me anywhere. In fact, it wouldn't even start this morning.

Thinking it was a fuel pump issue, I replaced that this morning - and two bolts and three lines later, nothing. Still no start, no fuel going through the filter, which tells me that no fuel is getting to the pump. I was a bit surprised that none of the lines I pulled from the pump leaked a drop of fuel, and as my fuel gauge tells me I'm a little over a quarter full, this makes me think that it's either a blockage, or a faulty fuel gauge, but with only 113 miles on this tank, I'd be hesitant to believe that's the case - especially since fuel level wasn't an issue when this happened the other week, and because the car wasn't sputtering. In fact, it was running pretty strong.

The carburetor is a 750cfm Holley with mechanical secondaries. From the pump to the carb, it first goes through a filter, then a fuel pressure regulator, and finally a fuel pressure gauge. I'm going to get my hands on a couple gallons of gas later and see if it's just a bad fuel gauge reading, but beyond that, I'm lost. To my knowledge I only have the mechanical pump, and I was not able to locate a filter under the car. I'm hopeful, but not certain that the fuel pump eccentric cam isn't loose or damaged - I'd think if that were the case that the car would run progressively worse until such time that the cam just wasn't actuating the fuel pump lever at all.

I'm certainly open to suggestions. I'd done some searching, but it wasn't exactly fruitful.

Update: Problem ended up being the filter between the pump and carb. Not only did it keep filling up with crap from the tank, but it had a leak, which was only noticed when a local Mustang enthusiast turned up to both admire my ride, and offer assistance. New filter, primed pump, and I was on my way like nothing ever happened.

I'm used to bike carbs; still learning car carbs.

[bob85gt]

when i disconnected the fuel lines to the fuel pump, gas would come out from the tank. do not know/remember how fuel it was. put a little pressure on the tank and see if gas comes out then. on my old and very rusted fuel line i started to have pin holes. on the vacum side this can airate the fuel and make it hard to get fuel to the pump. when i replace the in tank fuel gauge/pick up it was all very rusty and crumbled in my hand. again if it leaks it would make getting fuel out of the tank difficult. good luck.