As far as your fuel pump, is there an air bubble at the top of the filter, or is it completley empty? If its just an air bubble, this is normal. If it is empty or close to it, then I would say you have a fuel delivery problem. Not having enough fuel to the carb would not make it backfire. Or at least I have never seen it happen, and I work on cars and trucks everyday, its my job. Although, most of the problems I incounter are map sensors, o2 sensors, tps, ckp sensors, etc, etc, etc. Everytime I look at an old V8 now, I get lost trying to find the DLC port....hehe
