Warning, don't pour

On a fuel-injected car, (or any with an electric, in-tank fuel pump) you should only need to turn on the ignition, wait a few seconds for the pump to pressurize the line, and then start the motor.

You might even hear the pump running, and then stop when pressurized.

I had a 1956 Dodge p/u that had an electric, in-line pump, and it would start almost instantly upon turning the key. Not like most carbureated cars that would take 3 or 4 turns to start while the mechanical pump re-filled the fuel bowl.

We always did that. Never a fire.

Long ago we bought a motorhome that had been sitting for quite a while. We drove it home slowly, but it didn't have enough power (marginal fuel pump, maybe?) to make it up the "hill" out of the railroad underpass. BUT by feeding starting fluid direct to the carb (engine is right there between the front seats) we made it out.

If the vehicle is fuel injected, the answer is "maybe" but, the potential hazard far outweighs the possible benefit.

More importantly, in cars made since 1980ish, it is possible the fuel pump is mounted in the fuel tank. There are several reasons this is done, one of which is the fuel pump uses the gasoline to cool itself.

You should get out of the habit of running the tank so low, 1. Because you can damage the pump. 2. Because you have a good possibility of picking up contaminants in the bottom of the tank, everything from rust and dirt to water.

All of the above can result in very costly repairs, so, keep at least

Wow, what a great story, and I'm impressed that you thought of it.

How long were you stuck in the underpass before you thought of it?

The closest I have is the '67 Pontiac, I think it was, that for a while wouldnt' start on cold days. I'd get out, brush the snow off the hood so it wouldn't shut again after I opened it, and spray in starting fluid, and then rush back to the driver's seat to start the car before the vapors escaped (not sure if that really happened, but seemed likely.)

This was a nuisance, so I put a little plastic tube in some aquarium tubing which went through the firewall into the glove comparment where I put the can of starting fluid. This worked great for the whole cold part of the winter.

I don't think it was me -- either hubby or friend.

Minutes, if that.

Excellent!

On a vacation with the '68 Dodge van it inexplicably lost significant power, such that we couldn't make it up the on-ramp in Gallup, NM. A convertible full of happy Indians volunteered to push us up onto the freeway, and we were OK from then on. A little later we figured it might be the fuel pump, so I sat in the back of the van with a can of gas on my lap which fed into the carb by a long rubber tube (hi-tech gravity feed!). Ultimately it was determined that there was a kink in the fuel tank vent hose :-(

Good times...

Oh, yes. Great answer. The carbureted cars had mechanical fuel pumps.

By the time I got fuel injection, I'd learned not to run out of gas.

I'll listen.

Oh, yeah.

BTW, I never really inconvenienced myself by running out of gas. Once it was on the BQExpressway and I just coasted to the next ramp and down the ramp and into a gas station.

Twice it was on the Manhattan Bridge, and I just coasted down and across Tillary into a gas station. (There arent' many gas stations in Manhattan and I assumed they were more expensive than in Brooklyn) One of those times, the guy behind me helped me push it about 10 feet to get over the crest.

Another time I was going to a wedding in a town of 300 in western Illinois, and I ran out of gas just as I crossed the sidewalk into the town's only gas station. Coasted up to the pump.

Another time I just had to walk up the hill from the sunken xway and a half block to a gas station, and it only took maybe 20 minutes, but the worst part of that was I missed the action at work that morning. We would start at 7 to avoid the heat between 3:30 and 4:30 and we still had lunch at noon and one "coffee break" before that, so one guy used to, on his own, I guess used to drive his chevy with the trunk filled with ice and soda pop and sell them at store prices. One day, I was told after the fact, the foreman told him to get his car out of there, and he didn't move it, so the foreman said, "Move it by the time I get back or your fired", and he walked a block or so to some other part of the job. Apparently the guy with the car thought the foreman couldn't or wouldn't fire him so he didn't move, and when the foreman got back, he fired him.

All that I missed, but I think I was there for act 2, even though I didn't see it. The guy came back with a gun and threatened the foreman, who then just walked up the hill from the sunken xway we were working on, went to a payphone and called the police. When the police came and carted him away, he was still threatening to kill the foreman, and the foreman said if it werent' for that, he would have forgotten the whole thing, but instead he stopped by before going to court a while later. Instead of the work clothes and beat up pickup-truck, he was snazzy in a suit and a red sports car.

Leon had been in a cave-in, and had broken his leg, his hip, and iirc his back, and they told him he would never walk again, but he was in his

The good part was that if the boss hadn't been busy with the soda vendor, I might have been fired for being 15 minutes late. I was never late again.

Excellent!

I wonder how that happened.

One remmebers the bad things more than the good things, and if the bad things aren't that bad, like these stories, they are good memories.

Sounds like you had a clogged fuel filter. I had a clogged fuel filter in my Mazda RX2. My solution was to drive real slow from Nevada to San Mateo at night. That was damn exciting! That tiny engine had a huge 4 barrel carb. It was hungry all the time. :)

Not since about 1984 when gasoline powered vehicles put the pump in the fuel tank.

Our 70 Dodge pickup has its pump in the tank, which is right behind the seat. Kind of scary when you think about it.

Could be, it was a while back. 76 Southwind 27' monsterhome. Took it across the country and back and up to Canada and back. 8mpg, 5 mph uphill. First time we ever put more than $100 into a gas tank, and this was back in 1988 or so.

Exciting: pushing the 78 Caddy with the blown rod from the top of Cajon Pass to Pasadena at 2am with the van. Tied a tire to the front of the van and pushed the Caddy up to as fast as possible and then let it coast. Approach, push, repeat. Worst part was making a sharp left turn uphill into the driveway. Amazed that we didn't see a single cop.

Exciting2: Coming back from the mountains with a shot clutch. Screaming along at 15mph on I-10. Rode the shoulder all the way. Scary crossing the on/offramps. Finally had to call AAA when I couldn't make it up the hill at I-57. I just hated to admit defeat.

Our Ford pickup trucks had the tank behind the seat. Never heard of one doing bad things in a crash but that was a long time ago.

Yeah, I had a '77 Ford F-150 4WD with the 400 inch engine. That baby came with two 25 gallon fast-draining fuel tanks- one of which was right behind the seat. You could hear the gas slosh when you hit the brakes or made a sharp turn.

In yet another another stroke of design genius, the filler necks were on opposite sides of the vehicle. A real PIA at gas up time.

I saw you but I thought you were so crazy, I was afraid to approach you.

This must be why they include a claw hammer in tool kits sold for cars.

Officer Friendly

It had under 80K miles when it blew a rod coming back from Las Vegas. POS, just like the 88 Caddy.

Screaming down Cajon Pass in neutral in the dark, passing trucks, brakes and steering without power (a real bitch in a 78 Caddy). I put the headlights on when I thought there might be a cop around, but I was lucky. If I'd seen you I might not have waved -- death grip on the wheel.