Rough Start

[mtb.rxstar]

So I've got a '82 244 D24. At the time of purchase (a month ago) it fired up like a champ. I drove it around with the previous owner and everything seemed to be pretty good although the acceleration was a bit slow but that might have just been a perspective thing since I just drove there in a VW GTI mk5. I drove the car home that day (90 miles) and the next day I went out and the car wouldn't start

After a while I figured out that I'm getting air in the fuel pump (Bosch VE) and that if I just kept cranking the engine over for 15-30 seconds it would sputter and then fire up. Once running I can drive it around and it will be just fine, although if it's been idling for a long time and I push the accelerator (to the floor or anywhere in between) it won't rev up. I can coax it to finally accelerate but after (15-30 sec) a while of very low pressure on the pedal. Also, when I rev the engine manually while looking at the engine and pump a few bubbles and some drops of diesel form around one of the distributor pressure valves and leaks down.

So is my 'air in the pump' diagnosis right? I already replaced all of the low pressure injector hoses and fuel 'to' and 'from' hoses so other than the pump I'm not sure what else it could be. Am I looking at a pump rebuild? or do I need to work on bleeding the pump better and if so how?

That's about all. Thanks for reading and any advice would be great.