300TE Wagon Stalling 5 minutes after start

[Hugh E.]

I have a 1987 300TE wagon that starts fine and then stalls after 5 minutes of driving. It will restart once with a long and unpleasant amount of starter grinding, and then start no more. The next day however, it will spark right up and repeat same pattern.

It has a brand new rear fuel pump and the relay that works in conjunction with that pump. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd rate myself a 6.5 in the handy department but this is my first Benz. I respect the engineering enough to want to get this thing reliable and am hoping that this problem is familiar to someone.

I should add. If I started the car and pulled out on the highway, it would run until the gas ran out but I live in Brooklyn and it's the low rev at lights and stop signs where the motor dies out.

Sequence - car fires up and runs fine through the first few streets...maybe a mile, then it starts to run real ruff as I slow down for an intersection so I put it in neutral and feather the accelerator up and down to keep the motor running. Light goes green, I let the RPMs down to get into drive and it bogs out.