VCCA Home Forums Thread Like Summary - Fuel problems?

1950 Chevy Deluxe. Upgraded to a ‘56- 235 engine. Also converted to 12 volts. Ran great, then she sat for a year and a half after my son died. Trying to get back into it again. Starts great and runs great until it gets warm. She starts to backfire and then quit. The starter turns over like mad. I have to pump the crap out of it to get it started again. Then she runs bad on the return trip. Trip is total of a mile with a bit of warm up before I start moving. The starter turns over like mad.

Before sitting I cleaned the gas tank, put in a new sending unit and put a 12 volt gas gauge in. After the year and a half I changed battery. I put in a new new gas, coil, new electronic ignition and I added an inline, glass fuel filter. I checked all the plugs when it was warm and all are well.

When I first start it the fuel filter stays full. When warm there is just a “dribble” of gas in the filter. This is why I am thinking some kind of fuel problem. Could it be the fuel pump? Vapor lock? What? I am getting frustrated and don’t know where to continue looking or what to do. What could have changed while sitting for that time? Thanks in advance… Jeff

I think the key things here are:

"Starts great and runs great until it gets warm."

and

"When I first start it the fuel filter stays full. When warm there is just a “dribble” of gas in the filter."

I don't think a carburetor problem will affect the amount of gas in the bowl.
But a fuel pump problem would.

I didn't change any gas lines. I disconnected the gas line at the tank and the fuel pump. I blew out the line and then put in about 12 pounds of pressure. After a half an hour, there was still over 10 pounds of pressure in the line. I followed the line and no place where it could get hot. I let it run a bit and felt the back of the ignition switch. Not burning hot but very hot after a few minutes running. A replacement switch is ordered. Thanks CHIPPER and everyone else. I will let you know when the ignition switch gets here and installed.

Check the ignition switch to see if it gets hot after running. If there is corrosion or erosion on the switch contacts it may still work until it gets hot, then it can be intermittent and finally total failure.

We had an old Chevrolet on a tour that would start and run well for a while. It would then backfire irregularly loud enough to sound like an artillery piece going off. Might even begin to run fairly well until it quit at a signal light. We pushed it into a parking lot and I put my finger on the back of the ignition switch. I think I may still have the slotted screw "brand" on the tip of my finger. Hence, I recommend only tapping on the connections until verifying they are not in the "cook" mode.