Tillotson carb, what does a man have to do to get the fuel pump inlet from leaking?

[hotrod53]

I had no leaks, I pulled the carbs to clean them and I had a hard time getting the plastic inlet piece off of the carb, it was stuck. Once I reassembled them, I literally had to reassemble the inlet piece 15 times to get it to stop leaking. I bought a rebuild kit with all new gaskets after that and now it leaks again! I have had these things apart another 15 times and they still leak. It appears to be coming from around the blue plastic inlet. I have been assembling them and ball pumping the line.. maybe it won't leak when its running but obviously it would every time I started out.

The old gaskets were deformed with a step, obviously the new ones are still flat. I can tighten these things till I'm afraid they will break and it still leaks! The tollerances are real tight where the inlet sits on the fuel pump but you really can't screw it up. I have also tried swapping the inlets between the carbs and the leak is always the bottom carb. Nothing looks deformed, cracked or damaged.

Here is a parts breakdown with arrows to the parts.


Any suggestions?

[hotrod53]

Replaced the plastic inlets and its all good to go! Apparently they were deformed over the years, the newer ones are more convex and slightly smaller in diameter.