I wanted to get a better view of what was going on back there..
Removed the back few body bolts and lifted the body off the frame a bit with the floor jack..
jiggled the fuel hose around some and started engine.. (body lifted)
slowly releasing the restriction on the return.. had a few stall outs, wiggled fuel line some more in the back..
finally got it to idle relatively smoothly..
didn't have a barb to bypass fuel line and there isn't enough slack from the sending unit..
left for a few hours and came back later this evening, fired right up and idled steady for a few min before hunting again.
going to bypass the filter as instructed today and see what happens.. not looking to drop the tank without more testing, but Im going to need more than 12" of hose from sending unit... probably another previous owner mistake