Hard Starting and Intermittently Noisy Fuel Pump

[mosu]

Hi guys,

I'm experiencing a hard starting problem, especially when cold on a 1608 motor with an electric, trunk mounted fuel pump. It usually takes several bouts of 5-10 seconds of cranking for the engine to fire initially, but once it starts it restarts immediately. The fuel pump is usually fairly noisy ( a distinct whine can be heard when the motor's running from the trunk). However, while the motor is cranking and not starting, I don't hear it. Also it goes silent while the engine's running from time to time, but the noise comes back after awhile.

Is the pump failing? This is the first time I'm dealing with a carbed car's electric pump, how can I test it? The Haynes manual is very sketchy about it

Any help would be greatly appreciated! (Yes, the ignition and timing are within spec, they are not the cause for the hard start - there's no gas reaching the carb).

[So Cal Mark]

unless the carb is leaking, there should be enough fuel in the float bowl and run for a couple of minutes. Is the choke closing? The most common leak spot is the accelerator pump diaphragm. A noisy pump usually means its' sucking air or starving for fuel

[mosu]

The carb used to leak there Mark, but I rebuilt it. Since the car's in my dad's garage, the cold starts are a week apart and I would have assumed that all gas in the carb would have evaporated or returned to the tank in the meanwhile.
If I look down into the venturi and squirt the accelerator pump, there's no gas coming until a couple of good 5-10 second cranking episodes. Could the fuel pump not be priming the system with the key on MAR? I know on the injected models you get 2 seconds of the pump running and pressurizing the fuel rail, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.

[mosu]

Anyone? :S

[So Cal Mark]

does the pump run with the key on? when cranking? You may have to turn the key on and give it a few seconds to fill the system with fuel before trying to start it

[mosu]

I can't tell if it's running right away or not, but it doesn't start making ANY audible noise whatsoever until about 5-6 attempts to crank it. I'm suspecting that it's not running right away, but I don't know how to test it.