1973MG
Member
Hey everyone!
I just got done driving from Connecticut to Maine, no problems on the whole 7 hour drive. Started the car the night I arrived to go pick up a pizza, no issues then either. The next morning I went to start it and it cranked and cranked and cranked until it died. The car has 198,000 miles on it.
I browsed these forums a bunch and watch a ton of YouTube tutorials and realized that I've been experiencing symptoms of fuel restriction for a while; long crank times, spluttery starts, etc. This time when it died the fuel line between the filter and injection pump was completely dry. I replaced the fuel sending unit and attached a vacuum pump to the main line between the fuel filter and the injection pump to try and bleed the air from the system. I managed to suck tons of bubbly fuel out of the filter, but I clearly wasn't getting any fuel from the tank.
I hooked up the pump to the send line on the sending unit and built up vacuum, but couldn't seem to suck fuel out of the tank at all. Is it possible that the little brake bleeder hand pump I have isn't building enough vacuum to open the check valve on the sending unit?
Sorry for the long post, I'm just super stumped on this and felt like I was doing everything right only to hit a really big speedbump after doing all this work.
EDIT: I just went out and tested my shutoff valve. It seems to be working fine, so I don't think it was a misdiagnosed relay 109 issue.
I just got done driving from Connecticut to Maine, no problems on the whole 7 hour drive. Started the car the night I arrived to go pick up a pizza, no issues then either. The next morning I went to start it and it cranked and cranked and cranked until it died. The car has 198,000 miles on it.
I browsed these forums a bunch and watch a ton of YouTube tutorials and realized that I've been experiencing symptoms of fuel restriction for a while; long crank times, spluttery starts, etc. This time when it died the fuel line between the filter and injection pump was completely dry. I replaced the fuel sending unit and attached a vacuum pump to the main line between the fuel filter and the injection pump to try and bleed the air from the system. I managed to suck tons of bubbly fuel out of the filter, but I clearly wasn't getting any fuel from the tank.
I hooked up the pump to the send line on the sending unit and built up vacuum, but couldn't seem to suck fuel out of the tank at all. Is it possible that the little brake bleeder hand pump I have isn't building enough vacuum to open the check valve on the sending unit?
Sorry for the long post, I'm just super stumped on this and felt like I was doing everything right only to hit a really big speedbump after doing all this work.
EDIT: I just went out and tested my shutoff valve. It seems to be working fine, so I don't think it was a misdiagnosed relay 109 issue.
Last edited: