Over a month ago, my 300TD came up with a fuel problem....the problem turned out to be me, I simply ran it out of fuel and got a huge air bubble in the line. The basic problem was hidden by the fact that I had just put in 20 bucks of fuel...and my hard head said it can't be outta fuel!

After changing both filters which were still fine, changing out all the rubber lines, new primer pump, draining, inspecting, and re-filtering all the fuel, cleaning a spotless tank strainer, she still would not pick up a prime.

SOMEONE here (sorry I forgot who, but he is a GENIUS!) wrote somewhere and I can't find the thread, about using a "soap hand pump" to lift fuel from the tank to the IP. So, I stole the one off the Soft Soap bottle in the bath room! Had to wrap the bottom in eletrical tape to make a tight fit with fuel line, and in just about 15 pumps, I had a full filter! Clamped off the fuel line, re-attached the fuel line to the IP, and used the primer pump to finish purging the air. Cranked her over about 4 times at WOT, she caught, stumbled, and then smoothed out. Back to normal.

There is a moral to the story....don't be a moron and run outta fuel! A lot of what I did, I did because I didn't know what condition the tank was in....turns out it was in perfect shape, no trash, no fugus, no plugged strainer, clean as a whistle. In hindsight, all it needed was primed and I started changing out stuff, some of it needed, some not, and everything just added another "what if" to the problem! (and while you're already there, tweak this, and look at that, deer season, hunting too much, end of the year at work reports...can't believe it took over a month to her back on the road)

BTW, that soap pump is now in my "trouble box" in the car along with extra filters and a small set of ViseGrips....cheap insurance.

Thanks again to the soap pump Genius!!

__________________
Mark
1983 300TD Wagon
Even a broken watch is right twice a day