Hello All,
I have a '79 242 DL with 130,000 miles. I have been having an intermittent coughing at speed on accel or at speed on the highway. Fine for 2-3 months, then the problem would reoccur. When it is doing this stuttering, the fuel pump makes an odd noise, almost gurgling, or my wife says, when sitting behind the wheel "like someone softly shovelling snow onto the bottom of the car". I verified this was coming from the fuel pump side by laying my hand on the fuel filter and feeling a stutter when the noise happens. The engines performance is directly related to it. I pulled the tank pump, verified it's operation and replaced the normal cracked hose, and of course cleaned the pickup filter and checked for rust. There was zero. Put that back in, and the same thing happens. Now I try to start the car, and it requires half throttle, it catches, stumbles, and if I don't keep the gas on, it dies. Won't idle at all. However, with the gas on, it will eventually smooth out and keep running. Still makes the snow noise, or the intermittent gurgle. Time to get this knocked out, as it is ticking me off, and would appreciate any suggestions. I have the main pump and acumulator "sled" off the car, as I am thinking of replacing the main pump. The only problem I have with doing that is, could the accumulator be faulty? Blew into the small hose bung on the back of it and gas came shooting out at me. Is this normal? The pump relay is good, and I just cleaned it up. No improvement. Cleaned inside the fuse box, and it sparkes and has dielectric on all of the contacts. Please help!!!!