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Date:         Tue, 15 Sep 1998 12:23:21 -0500
Reply-To:     Max/Joyce Wellhouse <maxjoyce@IPA.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Max/Joyce Wellhouse <maxjoyce@IPA.NET>
Subject:      "Idiot Owner Out of Gas" Syndrome and Remedy?
Comments: To: Vanagon@vanagon.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Dear Folks: Twice now I have foolishly driven past the magic exit on the freeway only to feel the stumble and surging indicating I have not been watching the fuel guage very closely. On both occasions I have literally driven it until it wouldn't go any further however getting to a pump. Upon filling it the first time, it took 30 minutes or better to get it to rewstart and I wrote this off as some sort of air trapped in the fule/injector lines. I ran the battery down needlessly and ended up push starting it after a lot of mental stress. This most recent time(last night in a driving rain storm) I had the same thing happpen. After only running the battery down about half way this time, I decided to test the air lock theory(on our Dodge Caravan 3.0 6 cyl. we were told to NEVER run it out of gas for fear of the same problem) and slowly unscrewed the metal cap that accesses the fitting where the fuel pressure guage goes for testing(this is a 90 GL) as it was in plain sight down by the fuel pump block off plate above the belt pulley. To my surprise, as the cap was slowly removed, it reminded me of the bubbling that happens during the airbleeding of the radiator. This was probably not the safest thing to do(power was off but battery not disconnected), but it did start almost immediately upon re trying the ignition switch.

Is there another way to do this that could be safer or am I being a little too over-cautious? Relatively little fuel spilled out of the hole, but then it doesn't take much to start a fire and in retrospect, I should've pulled out the extinguisher and had it REAL handy just in case.

A couple of times I have felt the engine stumble and immediately filled the tank and not had this problem. TIA for any input you have

Dimwitted Moose and Flying Squirrel

Hey Bullwinkle, LOOK.. A message in a bottle....

HMMMM..... Fan mail from some Flounder?


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