Carb needs to be primed for car to start

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70DartMike

70DartMike

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Hey guys, engine is a '64 383, 2 bbl, stock carb (I believe Holley? Didn't look too close but maybe should have).

I filled the float bowl with gas, then ran a rubber line to a jerry can to figure out any idling issues the car may have had. It fired up right away and ran great and idled fine on its own, gave it a few pumps of the pedal and it revved up without problem. After shutting it off, I tried to restart it. Turn the key, starter turns and turns. Pedal halfway down, turn the key, starter turns and turns. Prime the carb again and it fires up right away. Is this an accelerator pump issue on the carb? Any ideas?
 
If you CAREFULLY (I'd suggest safety glasses) look down the carb as you turn the throttle, you should see/hear fuel being squirted into the bore. That should tell you if it's doing anything at all. Probably time for a rebuild if it hasn't been done recently.
 
70DartMike said:
Hey guys, engine is a '64 383, 2 bbl, stock carb (I believe Holley? Didn't look too close but maybe should have).

I filled the float bowl with gas, then ran a rubber line to a jerry can to figure out any idling issues the car may have had.
Click to expand...

Why were you doing this? Has this been sitting for a while? Does the float bowl stay full while running? Carb circuits need a proper fuel bowl level to work correctly.
 
DJC said:
If you CAREFULLY (I'd suggest safety glasses) look down the carb as you turn the throttle, you should see/hear fuel being squirted into the bore. That should tell you if it's doing anything at all. Probably time for a rebuild if it hasn't been done recently.
Click to expand...

Tried that, no fuel squirted into the bore while turning the throttle after the engine was shut off.

As for why I put gas in the bowl (I shouldn't say I filled it, I just poured a small cup of gas into the bowl), I bought the car unknown to how long ago it was last driven. Considering I've got to go through the entire brake system, I feel it has been a while since it was last driven. I didn't just pour gas down the carb because I wanted it to run longer than a few seconds, enough for the fuel pump to pump gas from the jerry can I plumbed in. The reason for the jerry can - the line from the tank is plugged/rusted. By pouring fuel into the bowl, the car will run for as long as the bowl has fuel, which can give you more like 30 seconds.
 
Then I'd say it's rebuild time. You could just replace the accel pump, but if you had crap in the lines, then it might have found it's way into the carb. Kits are cheap.

Once the fuel in the bowl drops below a certain level, that can throw off the rest of the carb fuel circuits - vacuum when starting (before running) won't be high enough to draw fuel through the idle circuit. It'll be hard to do much more diagnosis without proper float/fuel levels. You could run a line from the jerry can to the inlet side of the pump....
 
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