Testing fuel pump

[Jesse37932]

Not getting fuel on 66 170 engine. Took the fuel pump to napa, guy said he thought it was working-its very hard to push in the lever that sticks in the engine block and makes a grunting sound when you do. Guy at napa said I think this thing is good. So I read on the forum to put a tube to the inlet into a container of gas and an outlet tube to a catch can. Didnt pump a thing.
My question is should I have capped off the vacuum wiper inlet/outlet? Does vacuum have an effect on the fuel pump performance? Or is this thing just dead? It was working fine, bought a carb kit to rebuild the 1 barrel, wanted to start and run before I rebuilt carb, thats when I noticed it no longer wanted to pump gas.
Thanks for the help, you guys are great and I couldnt thank yall enough for the help. Cya in Townsend Tn, my goal is to drive Ol Buddy instead of towing like last year.

 

[bdavis70]

I had to prime mine after it had set for a while. Mine set for a few years so that may or may not be your problem.

 

[jw0747]

If you had the fuel line that carries gas from fuel pump to carb disconnected at the carb and pointed into the catch can and you ran the starter and no gas was pumped into the catch can then your f.p. is dead...

 

[blubuckaroo]

The fuel pump and vacuum pump are mechanically linked but are hydraulically independent of each other.

If you have access to an automotive vacuum gauge, It has a scale to test fuel pumps. You connect it to the fuel pump suction fitting and crank the engine over. As far as I know, this is the only test that actually quantifies the performance of a mechanical fuel pump.

 

[Jesse37932]

Thanks for all the responses. Time to get a fuel pump.