I removed a rusty fuel tank and fixed it with fiberglass resin etc. Put it back in and test drove it. Fine. Daughter tries to go to work and it will start but runs too rough to go anyplace. I look for a problem related to fuel but once it got dark, there's a light show under the hood. New plug wires and test drive. Fine. Daughter takes it 5 miles to work the next day and it stalls when she goes for lunch. Tow it home. Wait for a couple of hours until I can look it over again and the first thing I do is try to start without any changes. Yep, starts but runs badly. Finally stalling after a few minutes. So I disconnect the fuel feed line on the top rear of the fuel rail and there's some hissing and then air. When I crank, only air. I go to my 245 wagon and open then fuel rail and only gas and with good pressure. I exchange the fuel relay but there is no change(air). I drop the fuel pump and filter but there is no gas in the feed line from the tank to spill on me. I hot wire the pump on the bench and it seems to work fine. Could the pre pump in the tank fail and result in these symptoms? Is the fuel not getting to the main fuel pump to push to the front or can it be something else? Which fuse is for the in-tank fuel pump?

Thanks

Christopher

Fuse 4 for the intank pump. Symptoms sound like rotted hose connecting the tank pump to the output pipe. There is about a 3/4" gap that this hose bridges, about 4" above tank bottom. Over time the hose "perishes" as the Brits say. When you're low on gas (below the level of the rotten hose), much of the tank pump's output never leaves the tank.

And the main pump (not a good sucker to begin with) draws fumes. All this with tank below half full. Usually the trouble clears up when tank is more than half full (eliminating the air sucking) If yours does, that's your cue to get at the tank pump & hose. Come back if you need help with that, or search for recent postings about "tank pump removal/bung tool".

Bruce