I have a 1980...and i was pulling out of the bank to go put gas into my car, it stalls. I try starting it ....pump the gas 2 times. And i see smoke. I lift the hood and there's a fire around my carb!!

I put it out, go get gas in a can....put 2-3 gallons in the car...I had my mother with me to keep an eye on what was going on near the carb/engine.

As I'm restarting, she said flames were starting near the spark plugs. My guess is I pumped the gas too many times...flooding the carb? And gas leaked out onto the engine???

I left the car parked near the bank, and idk what to do right now. It has gas in it, I was going to go try to start it up and get it home later tonite. ANY HELP WOULD BE VERRRRRY APPRECIATED....thanks so much.

-Chris

 

That could be but it would take a lot of pumping and a leaky carb.
Does this car have an electric or manual fuel pump?
If it's electric I'd turn on the key and look under the hood for a possible fuel leak,might save you burning your car to the ground.
You could do the same with a manual pump by pulling the coil wire off and cranking over the starter but you'll need two people to be very effective.
One to crank and one to look.
One thing you don't want to do is be driving down the road with gas leaking all over your engine which apparently also has an ignition source leaking somewhere as well.

 

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunetly I'm not the most handy guy with cars....I bought the car in hopes to learn more. But what you're saying is DEF a help. I'm going to try to figure out what I'm going to do next. Thanks so much.

 

I think its a manual fuel pump ..

 

If so the fuel line into the carb will run down to the front passenger side of the engine where the pump is bolted on,the pump is driven by a lobe on the cam and a short pushrod inside the block.

The pump will look something like the with hoses going in and out of it.

 

The guy I bought it from gave me an extra fuel pump, so I recognize it in the first picture. I'm trying to think of where it would be...I'm looking at the picture of the engine on the bottom. Is the fuel pump the silver piece to the bottom right....attached near the bottom right of the spark plug?

 

yes it is

 

Thanks. So I'm to remove a coil wire? and look at it while someone cranks the engine? Or should I attempt to replace it with the new fuel pump I have? I'm like praying my car isn't f*cked.

 

dont just atempt to replace the fuel pump it might be leaking somewhere else like a line or something