With a nod to the late, great wit of Witt, here's a Some Other Brand Question.

Ford Econoline, 73, 302, 3 speed manual, 2 barrel carb. Hard starts after sitting for long time (few days.) Was daily driver for years, no issue. Mechanical fuel pump died, electrical one put on, and as the car was driven less, my old man would run the electric pump early before cranking to prime bowl.

Electric pump died, hard to find right one, so back to mechanical it went. Runs like the proverbial raped ape, but will start hard as no gas in bowl after sitting. You can fill the bowl via the vent or pour some right into the two barrel to prime it and it starts right up.

But, it's a van, so the engine is under a cowling which is a pain to remove and took out a spark plug wire. In the winter, he'll just leave the cowling off and drive around with the block right there, but it's too hot in the summer. I get given this van in November and I'll haul it up here and use it as a backup car/casual car show car.

Best thing for it is to prime the bowl. Hard on the driver though. Going back electrical on the pump is an idea, some sort of tube going into the carb vent is another from under the hood, a second pump in series might work, or maybe some sort of ghetto marine primer bulb.

How to prime the carb without removing the cowl?

 

This would get my vote. I have read that a lot of folks use an inline electric pump along with the mechanical pump.

 

Just be careful as the mechanical pump cannot draw fuel through some of the electric pumps.

 

Why run a mechanical and an electric fuel pump? If you put an electric fuel pump on it keep the mechanical "just in case." You should be able to get a cheap universal electric fuel pump from the auto parts store. Sounds like it might be time to rebuild that carburetor.

Here's a cheapie:

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/atx-e8012s/overview/

 

Sound like you have a small leak on the tank side of the mechanical pump. You may not notice a fuel leak fro it but it will allow the fuel to drain back to the tank. Then the pump will suck air instead of quickly priming.

 

Or the one way valve in the fuel pump is defective and leaking back to the tank causing the pump to have to work over time to get fuel back to the carburetor. Or you could have two problems if the carburetor has bad casting plug seals and is leaking around the seals leaving the bowl empty on start up.... Just a thought .... Tedd