Help! Weird failure

[bpmcgee]

Last night I was driving home in the 71 blazer. I was smelling fuel pretty strongly. Cruising along at 40 mph, the engine started stuttering badly. When I pulled up to the next stop sign, the engine just died right out and wouldn't restart.

When I checked clear fuel-filter right in front of the carb, there was no fuel. I figured "Dead fuel pump." So, I had it towed to my house.

This morning, I went outside to work on it. I turned it over, it quickly filled up the fuel filter and started right up!

Can a mechanical fuel pump behave this way? I'm more suspicious of cracked rubber fuel line someplace -- accounting for the strong smell of fuel while the fuel filter was empty.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Brian