Hey there, I’ve looked through threads and there don’t seem to be many that are talking about this.

I got my car to start and idle but when I go for a drive I can’t get out of first gear, since the car falls on its face hard with even a little bit of load.

I am not getting power to 1 out of the 2 power/signal wires going to the fuel pump relay, and it’s the one that comes through the 3 amp fuse in the box. I checked the fuse and it was fine, so I checked if the slot was getting voltage and it is not. Every other fuse gets power either always or with ign on. This ONE fuse is not getting any, ever.

I haven’t had much time to take the fuse block out and it’s getting cold, so I thought I’d send a probe to gather info (ie. this post )

 

The LG4 is a carb setup, and not TPI, correct?

If so this should be the diagram for it. The 3 amp "crank" fuse only gets power while the starter is cranking the engine, despite the misprint saying "hot at all times". The way it works is that the coil for the relay for the pusher pump in the tank only gets power while the engine is being cranked by the starter, and then once the engine starts the oil pressure closes the fuel pump oil pressure switch, keeping the pump running as long as there is oil pressure. This way, any failure that stops the engine (causing the oil pressure to become 0) will cause the pump to stop, and not be pumping gas into a possibly bad situation (A crash bad enough to have damaged the fuel lines, for ex). If the relay truly was powered whenever the key is in the on position, whether the engine is actually running or not, there would be no means of shutting the pump off during a key on / engine off situation. BTW, just an FYI here, what you are seeing with your fuel pump relay, being totally normal to not have power on it's coil while the engine is running, only while the starter is cranking, means that it has nothing to do with your poor running problem, which will require additional troubleshooting on it's own..........

Examine the top righthand side of the diagram for reference to my above description

 

That's a classic description of a failed carb accelerator pump.

 

Wow, great response thank you! I’ll check whether it has power during cranking then. I imagine I can rule this out now though.

As far as the poor running, I suppose I can check whether a “new”/spare carb install will fix it. Any other ideas?

Unfortunately when I went to start it yesterday after a few weeks, I just hear clicking- so now I have to deal with that first.