Yes, it's it's defenitely possible to not be able to access all the fuel
in the tank . I've had a diesel vanagon cleraly and distinctly 'clog up'
and 'run out of fuel' at 1/4 o the gauge, and about 4 gallons in the tank.

There's a 'sump area' in there that can clog up - in the bottom of the tank.
 The real repair is a new tank.
Scott
turbovans

Neil2 wrote:

> Seems I tried to wean my Westy last week.  Was running along fine on a level
> interstate stretch and all of a sudden I began to slowly lose acceleration
> despite depressing the pedal to the floor.  I don't recall if I swerved to
> get the tank fuel into the pump but it regained 'altitude' a few seconds
> later.  30 seconds later it happened again and I certainly began to swerve
> that time to keep the fuel flowing.  Same thing as before.  The last time it
> took a nosedive despite my trick.  I never really believed it was out of
> fuel because the fuel gauge indicator was not in the red zone.  Anyone know
> why the red zone on an '82 (diesel) is 1/4" thick!?  Also, the van didn't
> stutter while it lost power or while it regained power.  Mystery.  Do
> diesels respond differently to low fuel conditions?
>
> Has anyone else ran out of fuel while outside the red zone?  If I don't get
> a reasonable explanation this will be yet another crazy VW oddity I'll warn
> me children about.
>
> --
> Neil
> '82 Diesel Westy
> Peace of
>
>
>