Low fuel in filter

[mdrichey]

I've had my '53 Special sitting in the garage tinkering with it. The fuel tanks been redone and carb rebuilt among other things. Idling in the garage it's been running good, a little rough but not bad. Rev's right up, blows a little smoke but not terrible.

I finally took it out for a real test drive yesterday. Everything seemed to run good, though it lacked a little power, but when I got home and popped the hood I noticed there was hardly any fuel in the filter right before the carb. Oddly enough, it stills run well with barely a drop in there.

I'm looking for advice on possiblilities and where to start looking, my pump should be keeping this full correct?

Thank you.

[OOPSETTER1]

I had the fuel tank cleaned and the carb rebuilt on my '49 Super earlier this year, and my fuel filter doesn't fill completely either. I'm running an electric fuel pump, but the filter is always 1/2 full or less when idling. The car runs and performs fine, so I don't worry about it. I was talking with a guy that owns a '52 Roadmaster at a local car show recently, and we were discussing this...his car does the exact same thing. Before I had the work done on my Super, it was starving for fuel, and the filter would have no gas in it. Turned out that the needle valve and seat were the culprit on my Stromberg carb, maybe that is something you would want to check into.

[njlimbaugh]

The bowls are hardly ever full. I suggest, though, adding a modern in-line filter somewhere ahead of the pump. The bowl type does a pretty good job, but the inlines are better at holding stuff like tiny particles of rust that always show up in old tanks and find their way downstream. I would try to put it as close as possible to the tank.