My poor Mercury goes through long periods of time where it doesn't get driven. I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this! Lately, I've been just too busy with work to do anything fun. Gotta get those damn space ships flying, again! Anyway, my Mercury has a Holly teapot 4bbl that tends to dry out if the car sits for more than a week. To keep from having to crank the engine until the fuel bowl refills, I installed a bellows type electric fuel pump in line with the mechanical diaphragm pump. Since I only wanted to run the electric pump prior to starting the engine, I used a momentary switch instead of a detent type. The pump only needs to run briefly or in short "spurts" to keep from flooding the carb in the event of a float hang-up. Once the bowl is full, the fuel pump will shut off. With one pump of the accelerator, my Mercury fires right up!
the 1975 triumph TR6 I am restoring for a customer has a built in primer lever on the engine mounted fuel pump. I thought that was awesome since i have never seen one before like it. Whenever i need to start something that hasnt ran in a long time, I hook up a spare electric pump, (a cheapie) some spare fuel hose, and run the hose into a 5 gallon can. I wire the pump directly to the battery and let it run to fill the carb up. usually this will let the engine run for as long as i want it to.
Another good thing to do if a car sits for long periods is to get a trickle charger ( 1 amp or less ) and hook it to a wall timer like they use for outside lights or whatever. Just set it to come on for about 30 minutes to one hour a day or night. This keeps the battery topped off and then when you go to start it you have full voltage and amps. It will also keep the battery from freezing in colder climates. I have done this for years. No more jumping or waiting for a dead battery to charge. It also extends the life of the battery a bunch.
A friend has that setup on his '59T-bird. He used a $12 pump from J.C. Whitney that's about the size of a gear shift knob, only square. You said you put it "in line with the mechanical diaphragm pump." which means all the gas flow has to go through it all the time, past it's check valves, so if it's a small capacity pump it could hypthetically restrict and starve the supply. Wouldn't it also work if it was in parallel to the mechanical pump, being tee'd off just above and below the mechanical pump? the check valves in each would stop a bypassing between the two, but not slow down flow by having to go through each other's system. I have a lawnmower that has a rubber prime bulb that you push three times and then pull the cord, it missed starting on the first pull once in ten years, about a month ago, and died a fatal death last week (so I'm getting a new one from Santa.) That rubber bulb primer thingy might work and be fairly convenient on a hoodless car.
DrJ - I thought about plumbing the fuel pump in a bypass line, but that would have entailed the need for alot more fittings. My electric fuel pump also came from J.C.Whitney, but its one of the more expensive ones. I think it was made by Wallo (not sure, though). There hasn't been a problem with fuel starvation so far, so I think the pump has decent enough flow. I also thought of the "rubber primer bulb" as a possible solution, but it would have taken alot of pressing to get that fuel bowl filled!
The Jalopy Journal
