I just bought a 85 DL, the car ran great until I ran it out of gas and filled it back up. Since then the car has been wanting to die semi reg. When this happens, I cannot apply gas, without it just digging out and dieing. I'd let it sit for a couple minutes and it would start and drive just fine. Now that the tank is starting to empty, it won't stay running and cannot apply gas. Assumed it was the filter, the old one is under the rear passenger seat, and was nasty. Put the new one on, now it won't even start. Turned over a couple times but won't idol. Can these be installed backwards? And does the system need to be primed? If so how do? The car runs great besides this. Somthing is stopping fuel passing thru the system.

There is usually an arrow on the filter indicating direction of flow.

Edited May 13, 20169 yr by MR_Loyale

In 1985, the EA82 came out.    Do you have an EA81 ... if so, you have 2 fuel filters - one underneath near the fuel pump and one in the engine compartment.

If the engine is carb, then it should self prime. But it might be worthwhile to run the pump without trying to crank the engine to check the system is full of fuel.

Also, did you pull the fuel pine off at the carb to check it was getting fuel?