Hey guys hows it goin? I have a problem. i was driving on the highway on Thursday and i felt the car start to sputter a little bit. i just figured my plug wire fell off or something, cause it had happened a few times before. After i had met up with a friend, i tried to leave his house and my car would hardly run. It was stalling and the idle was surging and there was no power. After messing around with it a little bit i was able to limp the car back to the highway and make my way home. Its about a 40 mile trip back to my house. on the highway the car doesn't seem to run badly at all, i can feel it sputter a little but at WOT it still seems to have pretty good power. Since then i have replaced the Fuel filter, MAP sensor, IAC valve, O2 sensor, Fuel pressure regulator, and ive checked the TPS, the ignition coil, the distributor and the timing. Nothing seemed to fix it. the car still surges and has no power. if i try to move it around the yard it just surges and cuts off on me. We did pull the gas line up by the power steering pump and turned the ignition on to see if i had fuel pressure. Its didnt do anything with the ignition turned on and the car not running and it didnt pump anything while the car was cranking, after i had stopped cranking then some fuel spurted out. I have done some searching on this site and i found some info that made me think the pump might be bad, but it seems to run ok at higher RPM's during highway driving with the exception of a little bucking.

If the ignition is turned on with the car not running should there be fuel pumping out of the line?

Any ideas or suggestions would be helpful. thanks

 

My problem is similar, but not as severe. The car runs horribly around town, but when i get on the gas it drives better. My tachometer looks like it's on crack when idling or driving in both situations. Should be meeting up w/ a pal later this week to work on it. If I get a fix I'll be sure to post

 

Ok i just went outside and tested my fuel pump relay. it seems to be working. i took the fuel line apart and jumped the orange and grey terminals on the relay, and it spit a pretty good amount of fuel out. it almost filled a 20oz. water bottle in about 5 seconds. I plugged the relay back in and checked to see if the pump would work if i turned the ignition on. It did pump for about 2 seconds. I hooked the fuel line back up and tried to start the car to see if it would run ok and still nothing changed. I was hoping it would have done something because like i said in my first post, when i had the ignition turned on nothing would pump out. it would only pump after i had stopped cranking the engine.
I don't know what changed but now it does pump for a few seconds with the ignition turned on.

 

I have just finished jumping the A/B terminals under the dash to check the trouble codes. the codes it came back with is 13,23,42,44,53,54. is it normal to have this many codes or do you think its possible that my computer is fried?

 

The ECM energizes the fuel pump relay for 2 secs when the ignition switch is first turned on. Then it energizes it when it sees ignition pulses until the ignition switch is turned off. There's also an oil pressure switch that supplies power to the pump when it detects pressure.

Does it start & run normally when you have the fuel pump relay jumped? Can that relay only be installed one way?

 

when we jumped the terminals it seemed like it was pumping alot of fuel, but it didn't help the car run any better. i still had not checked the fuel pressure because i didn't have a T adapter for the fuel lines. i just decided to use a couple hoses and plastic T's from around the house and i got it hook up to our fuel pressure gauge. we tested the pressure with the terminals jumped on the regulator and it didn't hardly show anything. it was around 1/2 to 1 PSI. i guess thats my problem. But if the fuel pump is bad, would the car be throwing me that many codes?

 

My 1989 Camaro 305 TBI Vin E lost fuel PRESSURE to the injectors. It could deliver volume into an empty gas can but the injectors would only drip, not spray. No codes were being thrown. Today I cut an access hatch and pulled the pump assembly. I found that the 1.75 inch long rubber hose that connects the fuel pump motor to the metal fuel line (inside the tank) had a slight crack. And the hose appeared 'puffed up' and 'soft'. That short hose could send a good volume if there was no appreciable pressure built up. When pressure built up beyond a small amount that crack would send the fuel right back into the fuel tank area. It was acting like a very low set pressure regulator inside the tank. This was my suspicion for the past few days and my guess was right. Lucky me. So your pump motor might still be good.

 

Blakcamaro - If you still have that fuel pressure gauge hooked up and one of the lines taken apart, jump the fuel pump relay again and see if you can build up any pressure by trying to stop the flow of fuel. Don't plug the line completely, you might damage the pump. Just try using thumb pressure over the end of the line as you watch the gage. If you can build up and maintain 11-13 psi, the pump should be good enough to start & run the engine. I would guess the regulator diaphram is damaged. If you don't get that much pressure, something is wrong w/ the pump or associated components as previously mentioned by others..

 

Ok. i dropped the tank today and i pulled the pump and all the attached parts. when i pulled it i found that the little rubber hose was bad. looks pretty dry rotted and there is one big crack in it. i guess that was my problem. Also while i have the tank dropped i figured i would try to fix the fuel sender cause my fuel guage stays on full all the time until the tank gets near empty. I pulled the little sender apart and its looked pretty rusty inside, i tried to bend the little sensor in there so it would make better contact and i cleaned it all out with electronic cleaner. I tried checking it with the meter and when the float hangs all the way down it reads about 34-39 ohms. when i pick the float more the about 1/4 of the way up it reads OL. is this normal, is it even checkable?

Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics.

 

The replacement hose for this application needs to meet SAE 30R10

I purchased a NAPA hose that meets that standard.
It was NAPA Part# H213 which I also saw listed as NBHH213 somewhere.
This is designed to be used in submersed application.

I had to purchase one foot minimum at a dollar per half inch.
The original clamps were not the correct size for H213 because the new hose is thinner.