My son has had a 1996 Dodge Avenger for a year now, it's been a good
running car except for a starter problem a few months back we fixed
quick.  He takes good care of it with oil and filter changes and all
the normal stuff and he's a very low key driver.  A week ago he pulled
into a gas station and shut the car off.  He saw that pump was out of
order so he cranked it up and moved to another pump and shut it off
again.  He realized in his haste he pulled to the wrong side so he
started to move it and it would turn over strong but wouldn't fire.
He tried pumping the gas and would get an occasional fire but it would
catch.  I got him to wait about 10 minutes and try it again which he
did and it fired right up and ran fine after that.

He drove it for the next couple of days with no issues, starting and
running fine.  Then a couple days ago he drove to several places, went
to class in the afternoon and then after class was over he went to
leave and the same thing.  This time he waited and it still wouldn't
fire.  I swung by, had a can of starter fluid, popped the intake
filter case open, blew in a squirt and tried it.  It would try to run
but was making a clattering noise which he said it never made and as
soon as the fluid ran out it would shudder and stop.  We tried several
time but without the starter fluid it would just turn over and over
and not even sputter but only made the clattering noise when we
squirted some starter fluid in.

We had it towed to a friend's shop and he was very busy but managed to
take a look at it last evening.  He said he was going to take the
covers off and check the timing belt but he was also leaving to head
out of town for the weekend so won't be back to work on it until next
week.  I thought I'd pop in here and see if anyone else might have
some suggestions.

I kind of doubt the timing belt is the issue as he had this problem a
week ago and that would not of "fixed itself" by just sitting at the
gas station a while.  He some other people suggest it could be the
fuel pump but I have no clue if this is a submerged pump in the tank
or what.  Any suggestions or things I might could tell the guy to look
at when he returns next week?

All help and hints are greatly appreciated.
Scott