Rough Idle and Surging During Cruise..Bad Fuel Pump?

[RodsLT166K10]

Just recently I took my 1980 Z28 Camaro on a 1000 mile trip. When I left the car ran great, idled smooth as can be, and had no hint of surging at any RPM. Seeing that I was going on a long trip, I added a bottle of fuel system clean to the fuel tank before I left, hoping that the long trip would clean the carbon out of the motor. When I got the car back into town, I pulled up to a stop light and noticed that the idle had gotten choppy, and the rpms during cruise are starting to surge. Last time the car had these troubles, I replaced the fuel filter, which was loaded with crap, and everything was fine. I replaced the fuel filter and found it was also filled with crap, probably junk the Fuel system cleaner loosened up. The car still has the rough idle and surge during cruise, and under acceleration, it acts like its running out of gas. Has my mechanical fuel pump decide to call it quits? The carburetor is a fresh rebuild and tune, so I know there aren't any problems hiding in there.:dontknow:

[five7kid]

The fuel filter will by-pass if it gets too clogged up, and could allow crud to get into the carb. That's more likely than fuel pump, as the carb doesn't operate on fuel pressure like fuel injection, but on a pool of fuel in the fuel bowl. If the fuel pump is causing idle problems, then it won't be able to keep up at all with flow demands under power, so if it is at all driveable, the fuel pump isn't causing an idle problem.

[RodsLT166K10]

Hmm... All very good points. The reason I figured it may be the fuel pump was due the the strange surging and bucking during cruise, similar to the things it did last time the fuel filter clogged up. The idle kinda had me baffled, because the car acted like it had a vacuum leak/poor timing adjustment. I finally got a day off of work so I could go investigate the car a little further and found the problem. Looking down the throat of the carb, there is fuel dribbling out of the venturi at idle... Looks like its time to pull open the carb up and check for junk and adjust the float level... Thanks five7kid!

[wrnchbndr]

could also be sticking EGR vavle my.02 nevermind just saw the part about fuel dripping