took the fuel pump relay out and cleaned the contacts then kind of readjusted the points it connects to inside the fuse box by spreading them out with a tiny screwdriver (ive had to do this to all kinds of electrical connections on my chevy truck) , put the key in and could hear the pump priming for the first time in a week - turned the key started right up... now i feel like a hypochondriac - i was one day away from dropping the gas tank and was even going tonight to buy more 5 gallon gas cans to drain the almost full gas tank into - now decided im going to use the fuel pump money i had saved to put a new muffler on this puppy and maybe make a little more noise