ok i changing my friends 87 ta from tpi to carb. it has a mallory return style regulator on it,now when i turn the key ahead the feul pump doesnt come on somtimes,wait an hour then it will.the pump worked fine before the change over all the tpi wires are still there and i am useing the tpi distubter and coil.is there another way to get the feul pump to come on when the key is ahead or is this a common problem thats an easy fix?

 

you can't use the TPI distributor with a carb engine. It is a computer controlled distributor and without the rest of the FI stuff the ECM won't run the dist.

Fuel pump prime is controlled by the ECM but once the car is running the fuel pump is run by the Oil Pressure switch located above the oil filter.

Check out the tech articles section for all the info on making this swap.

 

well we got the feul pump problem solved after my friend got his car towed because of the stock feul pump,we changed it to a mechinal pump. we are useing the stock tpi distruber ,it works well.he hasent put it on a timing light yet so i cant tell you if its advancing or not.he had the feul pump problem when he had the super ram on it.to make things even more messed up that oil pressure switch you talk about isnt even there.it was in his old block but the block he has now doesnt have the hole there.and yes the feul pump worked after with out that sensor

 

Ofcourse it worked after its a mechanical pump now, did you leave the stock fuel pump in the tank?

 

what happened was his 350 spun a main so he got another block driver dipstick, built a 383 put it all back in with a super ram on top and no sensor above the oil filter. it ran good for about 25 miles then started running crazy rich ,so we put a 4 bbl intake on it with a mallory retun style regulater and tpi distrubiter.feul pump worked sometimes and somtimes it didnt.the tpi distrubter is still in it running fine..yeah i took out the in tank pump