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Buick not getting fuel to run


nailhead322

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I have a 72 GS and i am in the process of selling it. the car has always started right up and ran good. I had this guy driving about 2 1/2 hours to see it. I started it before he came and it ran for a few minutes and then stalled. the gas gauge read empty so i went and got gas and put a few gallons in. now i couldn't get the car started again still and noticed gas wasn't getting into the filter (i have a clear glass filter). now i am thinking the pump went? i have never had this happen so is it possible for the pump to work and then just go dead like that? or maybe the fuel line is clogged? needless to say the guy wasn't too happy after his trek down here and not getting to hear the car run.

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thanks. the guy is says if i can get it running he is still interested but he is also still looking so my luck will be he will move on and buy another car before i can get this fixed. thanks for replying, looking around i have found fuel pumps are still very available and fairly cheap for this car. thanks again

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Before jumping into a pump, have you considered blowing back on the fuel lines? This car has two I believe, and are easily accessible at the pump. I would not use a lot of air pressure though so as to avoid bursting a steel line.

What I'm thinking is the gas line at the tank end may be original and deteriorated or completely broken by this point in life.

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yeah thats what the guy mentioned. i said maybe the line was blocked because we were talking about how the new gas causes problems and he was talking about his boat and a guy i work with had to pay a bunch to rebuild his boat's carbs because he didn't clean the gas out before he stored it and it was sludge when he came back the next year. so i was thinking maybe that happened in the lines. i do have a compressor. so would i take the lines off the pump first and avoid blowing air through the available line that runs from the pump to the filter and carb? when it comes to messing with the lines all the way down the car at this point i am hoping its a fuel pump.

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I would not blow air through the line to the carb. If there was anything in there you'd risk pushing it into the carb. As a matter of fact I would not even open that line till I checked the lines going back to the tank. I do not know what the trick is but I have seen so many of those quadrojet filter fitting strip that it's not even funny.

If by chance the fuel line is at fault, you then might want to open the line to the carb and run a temp line to an old tank off a lawn mower or something like that, for purposes of starting the car. Maybe you'll get lucky and sell it before having to tackle the metal line. but if it is just the rubber hose at the back, just change it out. Even you can't use the car like that, and most likely you do not have to drop the tank.

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there was nothing....it was running fine and then shut off like i turned the key off. didn't even spudder like it would when a car was running out of gas. another thing that might not be related was on 1/4 tank then i watched it drop to Empty when i first started the car. then today when i put a few gallons because i thought it was just out of gas the gauge wouldn't move from Empty. so when the guy came to look at it I was attempting to start the car several times and one time i noticed the gauge suddenly showed 1/2 tank of fuel. i doubt this is related as it sounds like a stuck float but then again it did go down from 1/4 tank to empty so a stuck float wouldn't move. i have been smelling gas but i thought it was just from trying to start the car so much.

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If you've got a mightyvac and a brake bleeder kit, hook it up to the fuel line at the pump. If you can draw fuel through the line with a reasonable vacuum (or none at all), then it's likely the pump. If not, then blow out the line with compressed air.

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i don't think its an ignition problem. i had poured gas in the carb and it tried to start with a few sputters. the thing is that the carb isn't getting gas as I have a clear glass fuel filter right before the carb and gas isn't being pumped into it as i try to turn it over.

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  • 2 weeks later...

thanks for all help from you guys. i ended up doing a bunch of things. i replaced the rubber lines that went to and from the fuel pump because they were kind of rotted, i changed out the fuel pump and blew air into the lines while i had it off. after the new pump was on it pumped gas right up into the filter and after i gave the carb a good cleaning, the car fired right up. unfortunately the potential buyer is now not answering my emails so i guess its back trying to find a buyer. its amazing how snubbed this car gets because its "not a chevelle"

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