I've had a definite knock somewhere in my engine that I've been unable to identify for quite some time now. Today, while replacing a kinked fuel line, I had to remove the fuel pump and noticed that the pump rod had become quite severely "grooved" on the fuel pump end. I'm curious about two things, hopefully someone out there has had a similar experience:

1.) Could this be what was causing my knock?
2.) Do you think that the fuel pump is shot, or could I just get a new rod and replace the fuel line? I'm thinking that the line might actually be kinked badly enough that it was creating some backpressure(?) that would not have allowed the fuel pump to progress through its full range of travel, causing a groove to wear in the end of the rod...?

 

Somebody, please, this is important and urgent!

Sorry, but it really is!

 

It could possibly be causing the noise.

The kinked line has nothing to do with it, by design; the pump draws fuel in on the "push" stroke from the rod, and uses the spring to expel it toward the carb.

Put in a lightweight one like a Moroso or something (not a stock one), and see if it goes away. It's not very expensive, maybe $20. Same for the pump: less than $15. If it's trashed-looking, just replace it all and be certain there's no problem there.