Hard starting

[danaz]

On most days, my 79 Spider starts right up. On 3 occasions, it wouldn't start when asked to. Twice on cool mornings and once at night after it had gotten cool.
This morning (65 degrees out) it started in the garage, I backed it out, and an hour later it wouldn't start. I pulled the air filter and looked into the carb, it appeared wet and smelled liked gas. The butterflys at the bottom of the card were both closed tight, and the one at the top would close when I worked the linkage.

It appears to be flooded. I've been waiting for a new distributor pickup, so I may have weak spark, but plugs are new and it ran fine last night. DO I have a choke problem?

For what it's worth, the car has an electric fuel pump that starts to run (I hear it clicking) when the key is turned on. It appears to be an aftermarket add-on. It's a brass colored square box mounted on the drivers side fender. Could that be related to the problem?

[So Cal Mark]

for starters, that electric pump should be in the trunk near the tank.
After running the car, shut the engine off, then look down the carb throat. If you see fuel trickling into the venturi then you have a flooding problem