What you described are the classic symtoms of a cloged fuel filter.
...Art
On Sun, 4 Jan 1998, Wetmgs wrote:
> This might help someone in the future. Its probably too late to advise me as
> the problem seems to be fixed, but feel free to share ideas. Xmas day i
> started out on a 1 hour drive to the airport to pick up a friend. 10pm and 20
> miles on at70 mph my 74B loses almost all power. Pumping gas pedal helped
> slightly but car continued to slow then dies. The car starts, furious pumping
> gets the engine to rev, but car starts to move then loses power over and
> over. I nurse it along to an exit with a gas station. I see nothing out of
> place, realize i have no tools anyway, then notice the engine bay fuel filter
> is only half full. I start engine and filter is only quarter full, but engine
> seems to run ok. So off i go to seatac airport. I keep it down to 65 mph to
> keep up with slowest traffic even though fog is getting thick.
> i get to airport on time, no more car trouble, find out plane can't land and
> is diverted to small town to refuel. I wait till 3am then hear from friend to
> go home, plane will try again in morning so off i go, no prob. till 3 exits
> before the Tacoma narrows bridge, not a good place to break down, same
> story, nurse it along to last exit before bridge, get on side road, ignition
> off for a few min., try again, off i go. I got over the bridge, but had to
> repeat process a few times to get home. So i got my friend from the airport in
> the morning with the 66BGT ,but back to the fuel problem. I have heard of the
> in the tank fuel screen problems and also suspected the pump. I took the fuel
> line off the pump and turned on the pump to drain the tank into a can. The gas
> stream would flow, slow, then trickle. I put the shop-vac hose into the tank
> filler spout, formed a seal with my hand and buckled the tank bottom a few
> times, then tried the pump again with same results, i did this over and over
> till i got about 7 gallons out. [save your key pad, i know and respect the
> explosive properties of gasoline, dont do this on my advise] I then took off
> the pump and hooked up a battery and pumped gas from one can to another, it
> worked ok. I pumped from one can to the same can for 5 to 10 min. Still no
> prob. So i took off the gas tank, drained the rest off the gas and found no
> loose rust or foreign objects. The outlet fitting is brazed on so i took the
> sending unit out to look in. The fuel line goes through a slosh baffle and
> down out of sight. It took a small mirror on a stick to see the end of the
> line and screen. No debris, just a white cylinder shaped screen. I got the
> air compressor out and blew through the line. It whistled right through. I
> gave up looking and put it all back together. Went to Napa and got a new
> Facet pump, 4.5 max pressure, just like the one that came off. The old one
> had been on there since before i found the car as a rust bucket about 6 yrs
> ago it sat through a 3 yr restoration and has been driven since. I now have
> put a small metal filter between the tank and the pump and a glass filter
> before the carbs. There was a small amount of clear or milky particles in one
> of the gas cans i used, i cleaned them out to check, I dont know if they were
> in there before i started this or not, also the fitting nut on the tank outlet
> pipe was not very tight, not loose, but not real tight. The car runs fine now.
> The problem seems to be solved, but i dont know what the problem was. Well,
> sorry that took so long, i really did try to make it short.
>
> Marc Derenzy, Bremerton, WA
> 66BGT
> 74B
> 53 Magnette
> Lots of project and parts cars
>
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