w123 cannot bleed air from hard fuel lines

[upod]

FYI this is on a 1980 300TD wagon

For the life of me, I cannot bleed the air from the hard fuel lines going into the fuel injectors #1 and #2. I have had all of the hard lines cracked a full turn at the injectors while I crank the engine. After SEVERAL tries of doing this (20 seconds per time so as not to stress the starter motor) #3, 4 and 5 all have fuel coming out of them and are wet on top. However, #1 and 2 are BONE DRY on the top of the injectors, indicating to me that no fuel is coming from the hard lines to the injectors at #1 and #2. No fuel, nothing. I even unscrewed them some more and they're still bone dry.

I have bled fuel lines many times before without so much of a problem as this. I'm hoping it's not a defective IP because the engine started up and idled fine yesterday and ran for about 5 minutes! I've read numerous posts on this and also consulted the manual under section 07-140 which talks about venting the fuel lines. I've

And I've had to recharge the battery 4 times already and it's starting to get frustrating as nothing has changed! FYI, I'm cranking the engine for about 20 seconds per attempt with several minutes in between attempts, and then an hour or two while I wait for the battery to be recharged. Before attempting, I prime the hand primer pump (brand new, bosch) as per the factory manual section 7-140. I originally had the front tires of the car on ramps but have since put it back on flat ground, hoping that would (perhaps!) make some difference, but alas, no improvement.

Some background: I am finishing up an install of a replacement engine and the car DID start up on a dime yesterday with diesel purge in the primary fuel filter. The car was sitting over a month and the engine for about 5 months. The car was low on fuel so I poured in about 2 gallons of fresh diesel so it would be able to have enough to run on. I'm not sure if it had been run dry, but somehow, air must've been sucked into the line since the car had been sitting before I did the engine swap.