Pinto Car Club of America

The 77 Cruising Wagon I sold the other day ran when I injected starting fluid into the carb. I know the fuel pump worked but the fuel was a little grungy. I told everyone who called about the car it could be a simple fix and the car would run fine, but I wasn't a good enough mechanic to be able to say what that fix would be. The guy who bought the car, a young kid, worked on it in my garage for about an hour. He put in a new battery, a fuel filter and added a $40 electric fuel pump in between the fuel line and the regular fuel pump. He wired it to the alternator and grounded it, and in no time at all she was running like a clock. I've never heard of doing such a thing with an electric pump to boost the fuel flow into the carb via the mechanical pump. Pretty slick idea. Has anyone else done this, and in the long term, is it a safe arrangement?

  YES !  It can [should ?] be done  For safety and ease of starting

   I have pretty much the samething on ALL of my cars.

   However, something you should know first.   An elect pump, dosen't actually "pump"
it "pushes"   It should be as close to the tank as you can get it.

   Heres what I do.   Both for a back-up, and for [storage] safety
   
   With the elect. pump installed [as above] you should install a "petcock" into the inlet of the pump.  As to wireing, It should have a fused power supply.  Its best off the ignition switch, so the power goes off with the key.  Also install an "on-off" switch in the power line

   What I do is,,,,,, turn the gas supply off [petcock] and allow the car to run out of gasoline.  then turn off the key and etc.

    While the car is stored, there is NO gasoline in the line, carb, and etc.  [less of a chance of fire]

    When I want to use the car, I turn on [open] the "petcock"  then the power supply to the pump [the inline switch]  and allow the pump to run [it will stop as soon as theres gas in the carb.]  When the pump stops, I turn the switch off and start the motor.  Now the pump is there as back-up only.  Drive as normal.

  Hope this is understood, if not, please email me or ask a question here

Best  Jim   at jimspinto

Great advice!