I have an 87 Camaro Z28 Carb. and I bought a new fuel pump and ready to install the only problem is I can't get anything small enough to push back the push rod it's seems like it's resting against the engine. Any suggestions, tips? Thank you.

 

The pump pushrod slides in a hole and touches the camshaft. The cam has a lobe on it that moves pushrod out, and the spring tension on the pump arm pushs rod back in once cam turns.

Turn the engine alittle by hand and see if you can push the rod in the block any, if not turn engine some more... You should be able to move rod by finger.

Once rod will slide inside of block all the way... Look at the front bottom corner of block.. You will see two holes.. Top hole will have a bolt in it and bottom one may not.

Remove that top bolt, it will be a short one, do not loose it. Now push rod up and just screw a longer bolt in that top hole, it's an open oil all the way to the pump rod, sung the bolt up and it will press against rod and hold it in place., then just bolt on your pump.

Remove bolt and screw the short one back in... If you leave it out, oil will spray out of that bolt hole.

 

Provided the pushrod is not up against the cam lobe, I've used something like a small 6" steel ruler to shoehorn the pump actuator in place.

 

Thank you for the reply, I've tried what you said I turned it over like 4 or 5 times by hand and still no Lee way then I tried cranking the car 3 times and still nothing. This is frustrating and I don't know why this is harder than it needs to be

 

take a picture of the rod and hole and all and post it.. Easier to see something and figure it out than just read the words you know.

 

It's a pretty awkward place to take a picture. I first thought the job was impossible, but found it worked after a few tries using a strip of shim and getting one bolt started.

 

Heres the pic. Old Yeller is right it is an akward place to take a photo thats pretty much the best. Like I said the push rod is all the way out and nothing is small enough to fit in between there is no space what so ever idk if I have a bad rod or what

 

So you need to put some heavy grease on the pushrod, grab it with a pair of needlenose pliers and push it back up against the cam. The grease will hopefully keep it from falling back down. Then put a piece of narrow shim (I used feeler gauge stock) in there to hold the pushrod while you offer up the fuel pump with the actuator arm below the shim. Once the actuator is under the pushrod you can withdraw the shim, holding the fuel pump, with gasket attached, in place. You probably won't be able to get the pump up against the block, but have a mounting screw ready and get it started. Then start the other mounting screw and you should be able to pull the fuel pump in place.

 

Great pictures, it shows what I needed to see.

Yeah you just need to push the rod back up into the hole/block. Grab it with needle noses and put up some and slip a small screw driver between the plate and end of rod once you move it a tad with the needle noses..

Take that front corner bolt out of block that I mentioned before and push rod up with screwdriver then snug a longer bolt up in that corner hole.. Bolt on pump., remove corner bolt and put short one back.

If you still can't get the rod to move with needle noses, then take those 2 bottom bolts off of the plate, remove the plate, pull rod all the way out, clean the grime off it and push it back in, all the way, use the front corner bolt hole like mentioned before to hold rod in place,

Put new plate gasket on, put plate back on, then pump gasket and pump

 

A magnet pick-up tool will get it started.

A bent wire or shim to hold it in place will hold it.

Once the pump lever is in front of the pushrod, you're set.