1966 Continental Dies Out

Hello Bill,
First things first. Thank you so much for your Bills corner blog. It has become my first spot to look look for solutions to my problems.
This one it getting on my nerves and I would love some advice.
I have a 66 Continental running everything stock. The car starts great and runs perfect until i let it sit for a while then it starts but soon dies.
Most of the time the situation is like this. I dive a bunch of miles then I stop for a short time up to a few hours. I hope back in fire it up and with in the first 5-10 minutes it will sputter like its running out of gas and stall out. I have been able to just restart it and its good again for the rest of the drive. Yesterday was different.
I went to a local car show/ toy drive about 30 miles from my house. The car drove perfect. I spend about 4 hours at the show and when I went to leave the car fired up but was sputtering and stalled then it would not start it would just hiccup like it had a few drops of gas . Since I was at a show a bunch of guys wanted to help out. ( Thank God ) Everyone agreed that it sounded like it was out of gas so we pulled the hose off of the fuel pump and turned it over. At first it had almost no gas So we removed the small metal attached to the fuel pump and made sure it was clear. After blowing it out and getting a few specks of crude I was able to blow through it and reattached it. I turned the motor over and it was pumping and seems good to go. We put it back together again and before attaching the last hose tried it again. Again no fuel. At this point I put it back together and was about to call AAA but i figured what the hell let me try one more time. Sure enough it started and all was right with the world again. I checked it out at different rpms for about five minutes before I set off for home. It made it all the way back but three times along the way it sputtered and I thought it was going to stall out, twice while slowing down for a traffic light and once while coasting on the freeway.
I have read about using an electric fuel pump, Adding lead additives to the gas. i don’t know what the cause is or the correct solution might be. i just want make sure that what ever it do that it is the right thing
Thank you for any help or ideas that you might have.
Ken
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Hi Ken –
We are glad that you are enjoying the blog. The excellent description of your problem makes me believe that the basic tune up components on your 66 are in order and that your problem lies solely with fuel delivery to the carburetor. You should have the fuel pump pressure and flow volume tested as per the Shop Manual. The fuel pump could be failing at this time or the very popular fuel pump push rod could be warn to a point that it is causing the fuel pump to fail the above mentioned test. A small break in any of the fuel supply lines or hoses from the fuel tank can also cause air being introduced into the fuel and not appear as a leak. There is one short fuel hose hidden behind the left front splash shield that is often overlooked during inspection of the fuel hoses. After the problem is resolved I would replace the fuel filter even if the present one was cleaned. Then I would keep the old one as a spare. We will have the necessary repair parts available for you as well as the pump test specifications if you do not have the Shop Manual.
Sincerely,
Bill