Fuel Pump "76" 350

Hello everyone. Been smelling gas off and on from my 76 and thought it was the filter in the evap.tank so I changed it. I drove my car today since it was a fairly nice day and I was having withdrawls. Got back into the garage. After a couple of hours I went back out to the garage and smelled gas real strong. Got to checking and I have gas on the floor under the fuel pump. The pump is wet all around the top and the bottom hoses are all wet with gas. I checked the lines and they aren't leaking. Didn't want to start it up again for fear of a fire. When these fuel pumps go bad do they have a tendancy to leak like that or not. Got a new one ordered and I am going to replace the lines just in case. Never ran into this before.

Fuel pumps can definitely leak like you describe. A lot depends on how they're designed and/or built. Some are rebuildable and some aren't. The non-rebuildable one have the top and bottom halves crimped together and the rebuildable type has a gasket between the two halves.

I bought a non-rebuildable one for a brand x auto and it wasn't even properly crimped...as soon as it was installed and the car started it began leaking profusely from where the two halves were fitted together.

I used to own a Studebaker Avanti and its fuel pump goes bad in a unique fashion...the internal diaphram wears out and tears, dumping gasoline directly into the crankcase. Believe me, when that happened I didn't know what the problem was at first...the rpm's went way up, the speedometer needle went way down and a smokescreen poured out of the tail pipes. Apparently this design is common to Studes...maybe others as well.

Thanks for the feedback Gunslinger. I had never scene one do that like this one did. Got the part and gonna replace it today.

A lot of times there is a little vent hole at the top of the casting between the 2 bolt holes,when the diaphram goes bad the gas will spurt right out of the little hole ,have seen it twice ,once was after the fire was put out,it shot up on the exhaust manifold ,NUFF SAID

WOOOO, gettin after this one TODAY! Weather is crappy outside so inside stuff is on the agenda anyway. That makes sense now that you say it though. Didn't think about the whole and the diaphram going bad.