Hello there!

I just purchased a 1987 240DL with 151K miles for a couple of hundred bucks. The car is really beautiful. Volvo serviced with Volvo service records through over 100K miles. I purchased it from the owner who tells me that he ran the car out of gas, and since then, he has been unable to start the car. He stated that he put about 2 gallons of fuel in the car after he ran the tank dry, but it still won't deliver fuel. He also reports that a Volvo mechanic came to him for repair and put a gas line from a portable gas tank to one of the vacuum nipples in the intake side and the car started up and seemed to run fine.

This being said, the owner tells me that the in-tank pump is bad. He believes that running the car out of fuel caused it to go bad. I wonder how accurate this is. The fuel injector relay, if the white relay under the dash near the passengers feet is the fuel pump relay, buzzes nicely when the key is turn to the on position. I think that this is the fuel pump relay, but I'm not sure. I happen to have 2 other relays of this type that I purged from bone yard cars for this very purpose and they too buzz happily but don't seem to change the non-running condition of the car.

Is it possible that the car actually needs more fuel than 2 gallons to engage the in-tank fuel pump, or is this guy right and the pump is burned up?

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks so much in advance!

JBeechcraft