I thought the starters were extra beefy. Thought someone on the forum quoted the FSM that you could run it straight for something like two minutes without hurting it. Then you needed to wait a few for it to cool down before trying again.

In my 1981 300SD I ran out of fuel about three times before I stopped trusting the low level light. Each time I just put in about a gallon or so and ran the starter for something like two minutes. It pumped in the diesel fuel and started all three times. I did pump it up with the hand pump before hitting the starter but I never had to bleed anything. Was probably fifteen years ago.