Taurus starts then stalls

Brief summery...I bought a used 98 Taurus SE as a parts car. Ends up if I can fix this "parts car" it would be nicer than my sisters 96 GL so I thought I'd give it a shot and maybe surprise her with a nice swap.
I went over the "parts car" and it is in great shape. It has most of the options and they all work. 123k on the Duratec and a solid tranny. the body is straight and it even has a moon roof.

My problem seems to be fuel delivery. If I spray some ether in the throttle body it will purr for a few seconds then stall. I've checked the obvious. The fuel pump shut off button in the trunk is good. I hear the fuel pump go on when I turn the key. Fuel filter good. and yes, good gas in the tank. I see no kinked lines or anything unusual under the hood.

Anything I may be missing? All help is appreiciated.

TaurusGLenn

Do you have access to a fuel pressure gauge? That would probably be the first place to check, are you getting the proper fuel pressure to the injectors? If the answer is "no," then you probably have a weak fuel filter. If the answer is "yes," then you may have a vacuum leak somewhere that is causing a very lean condition until you spray the starting fluid in the throttle body. I trust when you are trying to start the car normally you have all the air intake tubing post-MAF connected securely, correct? Unmetered air (air not going through the MAF sensor) is basically a vacuum leak and can cause what you describe.

Also, you could have an EGR valve that is stuck open or not closing all the way. You should remove that and inspect it.

-Rod

Turns out it was the fuel pump.
Some advise for anyone thinking of trying the job themselves...
It's not a hard job if you don't make the mistakes I did.
First mistake...there is no way to remove the fuel hoses before dropping the tank. Lower the tank and the slide right off.
Second and biggest mistake...Remove as much fuel from the tank as you can before trying to replace tank. There was no problem lowering the tank with four gallons in it but trying to raise an unstable 50 pound tank is "almost" impossible! If I removed the gas I would have done the job in a fraction of the time and I wouldn't be as sore! Not to mention the danger of working around gas.

Good luck,

TaurusGLenn

Thank you for the follow-up on what it took to fix it!

-Rod