[Healeys] Running problem

[Brian Drab]

About 4 years ago I rebuilt my HD8 carbs and the car has run great since then with no adjustments required or made.
I put the car away for the winter in about November last year.
In probably mid January I decided to take the car out. It was a gorgeous day and I had to go to the grocery store about a mile away. I started the car and it ran fine. I noted that the gas gauge read between empty and ¼ . I started of to the store, but I noticed an obvious smell of raw gas when I was driving. When I got to the store lot, I parked the car, did my shopping, and came back out.  When I turned the key, I now noticed that the gas gauge moved up to dead on empty whi8ch on my car means you are really out of gas!. When I started the car, I got about 100 feet when the fuel pump started hammering. I got another couple of feet and the car ran out of gas. Fortunately, I was just across the street from a gas station so I took my trusty gas can, went over and filled it,  then came back and poured it in the gas tank. The car started up fine but began running really rough. I went another ½ block into another store, parked the car and went  inside. When I came back out about 15 minutes later there was a pool of gas, about 2-3'wide, under the front of the car. I started the car and it barely ran. I literally had to coax it home. It sounded like severe fuel starvation - running barely on about 3 cyclinders.
There was no more smell of raw gas nor any fuel leak as before.
When I got home, I rapped the top of the float bowls on each carb in caser it was a stuck float valve. and it seemed to run a lot better. I felt at that time that a float valve had stuck and probably siphoned the fuel out of one of float bowls through the overflow tube.
Fast forward 3 months:
Last night I was getting it ready to take it on a bit of a road trip today it and when I took it out,  it ran very poorly - again like fuel starvation but not as bad as before. It also popped back through the carbs frequently which I interpreted  to be a very lean mixture
I did the following:
put another 3 or 4 gallons of gas in the tank
Took the float bowls apart and cleaned them out - there was a bit of sediment in them but nothing worthwhile. I also checked the floats which were both leak free. I also cleaned out the float bowl filters at the in line.
I checked the Gros float valves and they seemed to work properly - held upside down, they closed and opened right side up.
I disconnected the fuel line at the fuel pump and blew air back into the tank thinking that when it ran out of gas, sediment in the bottom of the tank may have plugged the intake. It blew fine into the tank.
I have 2 fuel pumps on the car - the regular SU and a facet pump. I pulled of the fuel line at the float bowl and turned on the ignition. The SU pump and the facet pump each filled a coke bottle pretty  quickly. I did not measure pressure. The gas looked clear and pure. I do not have a fuel line filter.
I checked the plugs all seemed good and were in fact burning on the lean side.
I pulled the distributor cap and it was nice and clean inside with no sign of carbon tracks.
I  have electronic ignition so there is nothing I can check there.
I checked the timing - it was right on.
No matter what I did it didn't make an improvement.
I replaced the Gros float valves but it made no difference.
Today I pulled the carbs (which on a BJ8 is no easy task) I checked  the diaphrams and both were in good condition.
Now I am stumped. Is it a fuel problem or something else? Can any one offer any suggestions?
Brian Drab
Vancouver B.C.
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