realized i had a primer pump from my old 240D so i put that on and pumped away. fuel still came out from the pump but eventually i heard a squeaking (maybe the buzzing that was talked about earlier in the thread) and the car fired right up on the second try (with the help of a gas rag near the intake). its possible i never pumped long enough. i still have two questions though:

1. i assume that the primer pumps are not supposed to leak fuel out when you prime them? i'll still put in a new one (also i didn't have a new crush washer when i installed the one i picked off my old engine). could a leaking primer pump have caused me to lose power the other day?

2. if it was actually a fuel starvation problem then i guess i'm confused about my vacuum gauge. i have a sun-pro vacuum-boost gauge that i installed between the filter and the IP a few weeks ago so i would knwo when it was time to change filters. it never registered more than a few bars of boost. today i put a clamp on the fuel line and slowly tightened it as i revved the engine. the vacuum gauge seemed to register on the 'boost' side as i tightened the clamp (i thought that a clogged filter should register on the 'vacuum' side, but maybe i'm confused about boost vs. vacuum?). if i had a clogged fuel filter or clogged tank strainer shouldn't it have shown up on my gauge?
thanks