Chevrolet Repair: 1982 chevy 4x4 fuel problem, chevy 4x4, backyard mechanic

Question
good afternoon Van,

I have a 1982 chev 4x4 heavy half with dual tanks.
my son ran out of gas and put some in it. the tank on the driver side has a small hole in it, so it is not used. He accidently put gas in the driver side tank. It ran out quickly on that side before he realized it( fuel guage broken). he switched back to the other tank after putting fuel in it and could not get gas to the carb. He freaked out and put on a fuel pump. it was installed by a person who knew what he was doing, so i think it was installed correctly. i would like to know what you think the next thing i should do to try to get it running. i can't get fuel from the tank to the carb. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am working on this in our back yard with a standard set of "backyard" mechanic tools.  Thank You!
Jeff

Answer
Hi Jeff,
First, try the selector switch. If it seems spring loaded, you need to hold the rocker switch against the spring pressure for a few seconds to get it to switch the valve.
Check the fuses to see if the one for the fuel valve is blown.
I have had trucks that if you didn't hold that switch, it would be in the middle, and not get gas from either tank.
You should be able to hear the valve shifting.
If one tank hasn't been used for a long time, crud may have been drawn into the selector valve from it, but if it ran on that tank while gas was in it, then I doubt that would be the problem.
But Motors manuals have a section on testing fuel selector valves.
Van