Thanks guys, for the link and tricks ... I did blow the line out when I pulled the old gas tank out. from both sides ... I've had the car indoors for nearly 30 years, so the line is not rusted out, but I learned a valuable lesson about letting a car "sit" for too long a time ...
Today I replaced the fuel pump and she is running better, but still has a bit of a skip to it ... Since the tank, sending unit, pump and filter are new, I'm thinking maybe the carb is messed up from all that sitting around, so I'm going to do something about that next... not sure whether to have the stock AVS re-built, or spring for a new Holley .. any thoughts ?? I can't remember the details of what was done to the engine, as it was back around 1980 or so, but I remember buying a purple shaft cam and lots of other direct connection parts and had it re-built by a local guy who is great ... He estimated that the 340 was making around 375 hp at the time, and I've only put a couple thousand miles on it in all this time ... I should also mention that I had to replace the pushrods, and a few were bent up pretty good, one so bad we had to cut it in half with a die grinder to pull it out without taking the heads off .. The heavy duty valve springs all seemed to be fine .. I've put in new plugs, wires, coil, control module ... etc .. but still that skip .. I'm beginning to get frustrated !!