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Took 40 Years!!

cornemuse

cornemuse

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San Diego county
I've been driving diesel powered for 40 years now. (1st was a brand new '79 VW Rabbit diesel) (needed a new car to bring my new daughter home from the hospital!) VW, Chev, Datsun, MBZ. Anyway, I never ran one out of fuel till last week. I keep track of mileage to avoid just this. Drove home the Blazer & parked her. Next day would not start. I knew it was low on fuel, but thought it was still OK. Nope. Went & got 15 gallons of fuel in the MBZ, & filled the Blazer. Did like the book said for changing fuel filter, finally got 'er running. Gauge showed ½ + fuel. Drove to my bros home for Easter & drove home, about 35 miles. gauge swung to less than half. Yesterday took the three 5 gal cans & filled the Blaz & the cans. 31 gallons! Popped the hood at home & looked for leaks. The nozzle leak return lines (the rear driver side nozzle) both the plug & the line to the next (fwd) nozzle were gushing fuel to the ground. & not anywhere on the vehicle. Well not abnormally (its 35 yrs old & already filthy). I did not know how much bypass leakage there is involved! Nozzles rebuilt about 50,000 miles ago with 'Diesel Kiki' (Japanese Bosch?) nozzles. Anywayz, it seems to start better now than for the last few years, , , , go figure.

-c-
 
Wow, let me tell you that as a child and even now I have always had a fear of running out of fuel while on the roadway, whether it be gas or diesel. Mom said as a child I would stand up in the back seat pointing to the gas gauge if it got low. Yelp I remind you that was way before child safety seats and the laws requiring kids to be restrained. Always had a fear of running out of fuel.

Funny thing is I have a 2nd cousin that has a 13 year old boy he is the same way, he watches the gas gauge constantly.

Even these days I get nervous when the gas light comes on, have been lucky a few times for sure, never run out in a big vehicle, but I have run the riding lawn mower out a few times....🙂
 
I ran out twice. I backed the 1970 Monte Carlo in the barn to change the plastic timing gears and chain. Got done started right up and died within seconds. It would sputter and not start. Tore it back apart and checked the marks. Before I put a few gallons of gas in it. Fired right up with a little fuel.

This year I was going to pull the fuel tank on the 1963 John Deere 4010. I pumped the fuel out - down to 2" off the bottom of the tank. Backed it the 100 or so feet from the fuel tank and made it about 12 feet from where I was going to park it and ran out of fuel. Had to dump fuel in it to get it in the shed the rest of the way. I was surprised it sucked fuel that far up, off the bottom of the tank. I'm going to suck it empty before I put more in and move it again.

Had a friend tell me he's seen them rot from the inside and the outside. The reason I was going to pull the tank was to check for rust damage.

A friend's wife brought her car over for an oil change. Changed the oil and her car did just like the old Monte Carlo.

It started died then sputtered a little but wouldn't start. Add a little fuel to the subject and started right up.
 
Welcome to the club. Everyone needs to run out at least 1 time to be humbled.

I ran out once in a different family car never looked at fuel gauge (since I normally fuelled up my truck on a certain day each week just did not think about it). Never even saw the warning light.

It kills me my wife will drive on nothing. Her car once real low will displays the miles left til it dies and she thinks she can go down to the digital 0 miles left. She thinks E stands for Enough on the fuel gauge.

I have coasted into a gas station right up to the pump engine off out of fuel with my cousin driving some old early 70's truck.
 
I was 20 or 21 in my 69 Camaro on a date with my now wife. The entire harness was toasted in the car when I got it, and I had everything wired in on a ton of toggle switches. The gauge would stay wherever it was under power last, and somehow I didn’t flip on that switch when I picked her up.

Getting an awesome 4mpg, it didn’t take long. We had been dating a long time, and she was used to stopping all the time for gas, snd even asked about it. I said- “not yet, we have just over 1/4 tank.” No joke within 5 minutes on a busy street going up a steep hill...

No ya don’t keep a gas can in a camaro trunk. They aren’t sealed air tight from the cabin so you’ll smell it. So the closest gas station only had a single one gallon can. Filled it to the top, poured 95% in the tank and a touch in the carburetor to get it started. It almost made it to the gas station before running out. I coasted to the pump.

How do you know when you might have THE ONE? When she doesn’t care about walking with you back and forth for fuel, then says “let’s just push it” when she didn’t think it wouldn’t coast that far. Yes in middle of the day, in the Vegas summertime, and do you really think that car had a/c? Haha - 2/40 a/c as in 2 windows down and 40 mph. Infact when it died and we both new we were about 3 miles from the station, she asked if we should just push it from there.

That was when I decided 1 toggle switch should control an bank or relays, that power everything...
 
See what my wife does. She drove it down to 1 mile left on the computer range! To make me feel better she said she was actually worried this time. I am waiting on the day I have to take her gas. But since I ran out first what can I say except she should know better.1mile left.jpeg
 
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Bought an 89 S10 Blazer High Country. Black and gold. Really sharp. Wife's ride. It was the first year digital dash for them. What nobody told me or the manual didn't mention is that when the gauge says empty it's a NO SHIT situation. Middle of nowhere coming back from Northern Wisconsin. Just so happened we stopped next to a farmer scouting his field. He got his truck and towed us 3 miles to a Farm Service facility that had a pump.Never let that sucker below 1/4 tank again.

Looked similar to this but the wheels were gold and it had the rear spare with cool cover.40381534745_38d4d1a373_b.jpg
 
Kind of funny in a way, last weekend my wife says my gas light came on Friday while I was going to work. Her work is less than 3 miles from our house.

Sunday I take her vehicle to the gas pumps, the computer gadget says 21 miles range, I suppose till its out. I put 14.5 gallons in the vehicle, it has a 16 gallon tank, so I guess I had a little leeway just going about 1.5 miles from the house to the gas station.
 
Will L. said:
I was 20 or 21 in my 69 Camaro on a date with my now wife. The entire harness was toasted in the car when I got it, and I had everything wired in on a ton of toggle switches. The gauge would stay wherever it was under power last, and somehow I didn’t flip on that switch when I picked her up.

Getting an awesome 4mpg, it didn’t take long. We had been dating a long time, and she was used to stopping all the time for gas, snd even asked about it. I said- “not yet, we have just over 1/4 tank.” No joke within 5 minutes on a busy street going up a steep hill...

No ya don’t keep a gas can in a camaro trunk. They aren’t sealed air tight from the cabin so you’ll smell it. So the closest gas station only had a single one gallon can. Filled it to the top, poured 95% in the tank and a touch in the carburetor to get it started. It almost made it to the gas station before running out. I coasted to the pump.

How do you know when you might have THE ONE? When she doesn’t care about walking with you back and forth for fuel, then says “let’s just push it” when she didn’t think it wouldn’t coast that far. Yes in middle of the day, in the Vegas summertime, and do you really think that car had a/c? Haha - 2/40 a/c as in 2 windows down and 40 mph. Infact when it died and we both new we were about 3 miles from the station, she asked if we should just push it from there.

That was when I decided 1 toggle switch should control an bank or relays, that power everything...
Click to expand...
I knew guys who "pretended" to run out of fuel. Were you one, Will?:)
 
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