I am new to all the V8 American vehicles, stating that i have an 83 camaro 5.0 305 4 barrel carb vin # 7. The car has been sitting up for a good 3 to 4 years now and recently wanted to start getting into the "scene" of restoring it. I changed the fuel pump 2 days ago and it would start for 2 seconds. Changed the plugs to bosch Platinum 2 and we got a bit more reaction from it... then it kills. so i looked around a bit and noticed that there is a *smells* like a fuel line disconnected coming from the back of the carb. can anyone show me in a picture of where this fuel line goes to?

Also (idk if this info helps) but i can pump the gas with the pedal before i crank it and it will run. if i don't do this it wont start. Any answers/comments are much appreciated as it is our only vehicle now. it is also the top line located near the distributor but on the engine itself. I will upload pics if needed. thanks again

Also I'm sure this has been asked before, but where exactly is the fuel filter located at. Also it would be really great if you can post a picture pointing to what/where it is. Sorry for all the dumb questions as i am a total noob in mechanic work and V8's lol.

Recently Uploaded pictures of whats my situation. It is the Blue taped line that needs to be connected. any ideas, comments, or answers would be greatly appreciated.

 

Pic #2 - that's not fuel line, that's manifold vacuum lines. That's your intake manifold, not your carb - the carb sits on top. Fuel lines will always have clamps on them.

Pic 3 - that's a vacuum line that needs reconnected or plugged - probably runs along firewall to pass side, then down pass side to the vacuum ball, evap canister, cruise control. Look under lip of pass fender close to firewall (around the hood hinge area) and see if you find the 'other half' of the vacuum line that it connects to.

Anytime your nose is close to a carb, you'll smell fuel - carbs hold about 6 ounces of fuel inside in the 'bowls' so that there's gas to start the car with before the fuel pump starts pumping.

Your fuel pump will be attached to the block, front of pass side motor - it's a mechanical pump - has an arm that literally goes into the engine block and gets pushed up/down by the camshaft to 'pump' the fuel.

Usually, the filter is rear of car, driver side, just in front of rear tire, about 1 foot inwards towards center of car.

If this is old gas, grab a can of Seafoam and put in tank per directions. And use carb cleaner to spray all down inside the carb around the butterfly valves to make sure there's no gummed up gas in there.

 

thanks for the quick reply. i am looking at it now and will let you know if i find the other half of it. also would that be causing my problem such as running out of fuel after a few seconds of start up?

Also I cant seem to find the other half of the vacuum line maybe im overlooking it but it seems like its missing...

 

A vacuum leak will make a motor run bad alot of times - pull the white connector out of that vacuum line for now, and stick a pencil, golf tee, screw, something in it to plug it and see if engine runs better.

 

Ehh... No luck. Still kills after a few seconds. Must be a fuel delivery problem. The pump is out of the way as i just changed it 3 days ago so now my second guess would be the fuel filter, anything other than that im going to be at a complete loss.

 

I'm not 100% on whether the early carbed cars had a fuel filter at the rear or not. I know the later ones and the EFI cars did. Haven't been under too many 3rd gens before 1987. But that would be my next step, locate and replace filter.

 

ok i will do that probably next week or so when i get paid again. And thanks again for all the help.

 

If thats a quadrajet and the car came with it, the fuel filter is actually inside the carb. Unscrew where the fuel line goes into the front passenger side of the carb. It's like a 7/8 or 1 inch wrench. Make sure you put the replacement facing the right direction in there. I think theres a spring in there too dont lose it.

And see that black plastic tank in the middle of pic one? The vacuum connection in pic two connects to that. The tank "stores" the vacuum that operates your heater vent controls.

 

That would be a "HO", aka L69.

The absolute top of the line for that year.

Should be a 5-speed with 3.73 gears, maybe discs and a posi.

All in all, a highly desirable car. Worth preserving unmolested and un-hacked, if it has made it this far.

Here's the vacuum line routing for that engine. It doesn't show the vacuum supply to the HVAC controls or to the cruise control, since those aren't part of "the engine"; but they both get their vacuum from that fitting behind the carb.



Try pouring some gas into the carb's fuel bowl before trying to start it. Fill it up. The hole to pour into is in the "tower" looking thing at the extreme front of the part covered by the air cleaner. There's 2 holes in it, the one toward the front is the vent. Just pour gas down into there until it's full. THen try starting it.



The fuel filter is inside the big metal nut labelled, oddly enough, "<----FILTER", in the pic. The big nut is 1", and the fuel line nut is 5/8". Get a 5/8" "tubing wrench" from Sears or wherever, and a 1" open-end to hold the big nut still (you MUST do it this way or you will destroy the fuel line), and remove the fuel line from the nut, and then the nut from the carb, and the filter will be inside it.

 

Wow... Thanks for all the help guys. would've never found it without all the pictures and explanations.

Lol i just checked this out and found it in approximately 3 seconds... thanks so much guys. will be replacing the filter in a week or so and will get back to you.

after trying to get the nut off the filter i stripped it... the 5/8 nut. is there any possible way for me to just be able to take the 1" nut by itself off? or is that not in my luck?

 

You say that it will start when you pump the gas pedal before you crank it, but otherwise it won't. When the engine is cold it needs an initially rich air/fuel mix. When you pump the gas pedal, the choke plate covering the primary bores will close shut. This gives an initial rich mixture. If you just crank the engine without closing the choke plate the engine will get the same air/fuel mix that it got when you last shut the engine off and it will struggle and fail to start.

To get a better understanding of how the chocke function on your carburetor works I would recommend reading Damons post in this thread: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tech...operation.html

 

Not sure where I was unclear here... which part is not clear enough and needs clarification? I'm guessing you already failed to follow the instructions, by not using a tubing wrench? Since it's near impossible to tear up the nut with the right tool...

 

Uh, don't mean to be contradictory, but VIN 7 is LU5, 305 Crossfire. L69 is VIN code G.
https://www.thirdgen.org/tech-data

If the 8th character of your VIN is a "7", then someone, sometime, converted the car over to carburetor. That might explain (at least partially) why things are disconnected/taped-up.

 

VIN "7" in 83 was the L69. That's what my car is. 1G1AP8771DL.....

 

So, what VIN code did they use for the LU5 in '83?

 

:shrug:

No idea. I don't have one of those (thank Providence). Can't tell you. Don't even know for sure that there was the LU5 in 83. By 83, I already knew, if a car had that, didn't matter what year it was, I didn't even look a 2nd time. About like a 6-cyl. Wasn't interested. Wasn't for me. Didn't care. Paid it no attention.

 

To tell you the truth guys, i really have no clue on anything about american vehicles. The car has been sitting up for a couple of years now and am restoring it (or at least trying to) to use it as an everyday vehicle. I just moved here with my wife a year ago and she's actually telling me the vin#, how the car was "taken care of" and also how her dad "fixed it"
i tried getting help from him on where things are located what tools i need etc and i get nothing useful, so thats why i came here. Lol sorry for the rant but thats why i have sooo many questions that may seem dumb to you guys but i am a major noob here.

 

alot of them fuel lines wound up stripped not a big deal use vise grips on the fuel line , the important part is the nut holding the filter itself be very very careful with that if you strip that it's a problem. Just be careful not to kink the fuel line when you break the nut loose .

 

Ok so im getting the new fuel filter today and will replace it later tonight when i get home from work. i will let you guys know how it is acting once everything is done. i had a couple of relatives saying that it might be the accelerator pump in the carb. if the filter doesnt work, i guess that will be my next step. I also read up that if we had the fuel line disconnected from the filter and cranked the engine, if gas would come out the line then it was probably the filter that was wrong with it. (gas did come out of the line when it cranked) I'm just thinking that it wont be this easy to get it running. maybe im on a totally different track but it could be right if im understanding the fuel lines right. Hopefully we will get the old cam running tonight.

 

'83 was the last year for the LU5, and the first year for the L69 (introduced mid-year). Apparently they used the same VIN code in '83 for both engines (nice move, Factory...). In '84, they switched to VIN code "G" for the L69 until it was discontinued in '86.

If you want to check the function of the accelerator pump, and you know the carb is getting fuel into the bowl: With the engine off, open the choke butterfly by hand and hold it open. While looking down into the primary venturi, open the throttle. You should see two squirts of fuel into the venturi. If you don't see the squirts, either there isn't any fuel in the fuel bowl, or your accelerator pump isn't working.

Since the car has been sitting for an extended time, it wouldn't be a bad idea to pull the carb and rebuild it. This will get any accumulated gunk from dried out fuel cleaned out, and the accelerator pump plunger as well as float needle & seat come with your basic rebuild kit. The float itself won't come in the rebuild kit, but again since the car sat for an extended time, it wouldn't be a bad idea to replace it as well.

 

well the filter is out of the question. Changed the filter about 15 minutes ago and am still having the same problem. guess its time to rebuild the carb.

Ok so after long days of changing parts on the car we have finally fixed it... and nothing needed to be (replaced) on it.
comes down to the choke on the carb was in a locked position and we just tied it back today and it runs almost flawless (besides an idling issue). Still can't believe i skipped over such an easy problem. all ive gotta say is thanks for all your help. Glad to be part of the forum.