You may recall that in the last episode of this exciting melodrama, Tom suggested ...

If the pump is noisy and the amperage is jumping around, there is probably air getting into the suction side of the main pump. I recently had this problem with a rusted pinhole inside the tank on the metal fuel line. Check this and also the rubber tubing between the in-tank pump and the fuel line.

Bingo! I did the fuel delivery test, and not only was it low (I was getting less than half the requisite 1 liter in 30 sec.), I was also getting bubbles in the gas! Also, with a jumper hooked up to do the test, I noticed something I had missed before: the pump was very quiet for a second or two, then would start making a lot of noise, apparently when the air got sucked into the main pump.

It was easier getting the prepump out this time since I had some experience at it now, but I also spilled a bunch of gas, so I took the rest of the day off. At any rate, I tried blowing into the gas outlet of the prepump, but the hose that attaches to the prepump, while looking rather sad, didn't seem to leak air. And the metal lines all look fine (no rust here). And I had the same noise with the tank empty or full. So now I'm suspecting the hose that carries the gas to the main pump. Is there anything special about this hose? Can I just replace it with generic (FI grade) fuel line hose? Is there anything else I should suspect? The main pump is only a few months old -- I replaced it last summer because of the noise, but it turned out to be just as noisy as the old one (which I did save!). At any rate, I can't imagine where else there could be air getting into the line.

Any further thoughts gratefully accepted ...

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'81 GLT 245 @ 259K; '83 DL 175K