Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

My Carter 2198 fuel pump lost the arm pin while driving and the arm is stuck inside the engine. What would be the best way to fish it out? From the oil pan or? I'm very handy but haven't taken the engine apart before. Has anyone had this happen? Any advice appreciated.

Magnet on a flexible handle would be my suggestion.

Could probably replace the pin with a clevis pin secured with a cotter pin.

Drop the pan.

tsherry I'm not sure which car you have but dropping the oil pan is a pain on a V8 car.

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Thanks for your advice! I'll try a magnet wand first. If no luck, I'll drop the pan.

If it is the pin or keeper missing you might find it in the pan but if you are talking about the long arm on a V8 pump I would be surprised if it could have made the bend into the shallow end of the pan so is probably still somewhere in the timing chain cover. Because of the small space between chain sprockets and chain cover sides along with the front crossmember being only a small distance away, unless you can maneuver it to lie flat or come out at an angle not sure you could easily remove it from below.

Even if it is removable by taking the pan off I would also wonder if there was any damage to chain or sprockets so would want to remove the timing cover and check in that area too. Not sure whether the pan or cover is the easier item to remove but best of luck in getting it out quickly.

Reminder: two oil pan bolts are attached to the cover from below.

To remove vibration damper:

Update! I was able to use a telescoping magnet and curved needle nose pliers to retrieve the pump arm and the spring. Phew! thank you all for your advice and support. Going to look into replacing the original arm pin with a locking pin. Has anyone done this? The clearance needed for the mounting bolts is pretty tight.

Now I'm having issues getting the fuel pump to work. Does the 320 engine have a pushrod like in other V-8's to push down on the pump arm? Any tips or tricks for installing it correctly would be appreciated.

No. The long arm is operated by an eccentric bolted on the front of the camshaft sprocket. As I recall when you insert the arm make sure it is on the bottom side so the eccentric pushes it down.