Hey you all whats up, I wrecked my 88 GTA L98 on Friday after school, i rear ended someone, and my fender got a lil messed up and my front bumper cover also, it will cost about $200 to fix, but anyways.....after the crash my car started to act funny, like it was sputtering and everytime i would turn the wheel the car would like choke out....and when i got home the car was running fine, so today I tried to start it and it won't even turn on, it is gettin spark and i think it might be gettin fuel cause i can hear the fuel pump, but I really don't know whats wrong with it, it wants to turn on and everything but it won't turn on, it turns over fine. I had a little problem that same day before the accident, i put in 89 octane and it was sputtering a little, what do you think it could be, i put in 2 gallons of 93 octane today (which is what i normally run ) and it still won't turn on!! I am gettin very frustrated cause I need my car.....do you think something might have shorted out or maybe a realy went out or something....and the belts sounds really squeeky also when it wants to turn over... please help soon!!!!.......AARON

 

Why are you running 93 octane? You can get by on 87 easily if you haven't added a bunch of timing. I understand that it cranks, but it's not starting. Will it start if you give it starting fluid? Is the spark from a plug white?

 

Its possible that the impact of the crash knocked the fuel pickup in the gas tank loose. Obviously your engine isn't going to get any fuel if the pickup is floating around at the bottom of the tank. It sounds like it was possibly loose or cracked already from your description of how the car ran before, and the crash finally did it in.

Just my .02

 

That's exactly what happened to one of my Fieros that was "launched" onto my front lawn from its parking space by a drunk driver. The pump was dislodged by the inertia of the impact and wouldn't develop pressure in the system, even though the pump itself was just fine:

 

you know, i would have never thought that would have been the problem, the car fires up and just wont turn on, it sounds like it wants to and for a brief moment it feels as though it will turn on but no dice...how hard would it be to get to the fuel pump sending unit, in my S10 they had to drop the tank, now on my GTA would they have to drop the tank or how would they do it, oh and how much does one of those cost? my S10 Blazers was like $240 from the dealership and it came with everything complete...where could I get one if it is the problem...thanks...AARON

 

I also forgot to state that the impact of the accident was only about 10mph to 15mph at the most....could that have still done it??? and knocked the fuel pickup loose

 

is there a fuel relay, if there is try resetting that before dropping ur tank itll be alot easier to do if u can find it. most cars have them urs should. its designed to cut the fuel off even at low speed impacts to keep cars from catching on fire in an accident

 

As far as I know, there isn't any kind of cut off on the 3rd gens. (Is there one on the 4th gens??) To get at the tank on our cars you also have to drop the exhaust and the axle down- not fun- I've done it twice. YOu could check the fuel operation with a pressure gauge (about $40). Any hint as to what side of your car you crumpled? Or did you hit the guy head-on? You said a fender got messed up, but didn't say which one...

Vader, that's freaky! Is that a pulsator or a piece of rubber hose in that pic?

 

Right. Most Fords have the cutoff inertia switch, which has to me manually reset (by relocating a large steel ball). ThirdGens have an ECM/Fuel Pump fuse and relay. Aside from that, there is the connection at the tank and the pump itself. The tank needs to be dropped to replace the pump.

Tom,

That should have been a pulsation damper but on that TBI it was more like a hose. The pump had never been out before, and there were NO clamps on the hose, er, pulsation damper. There are now...

 

My mechanic came and picked up the car today, he said something about the plugs were full of gas and he put new plugs, wires and set timing, car running good but not as awesome as before....AARON

 

Where he said that he just got gas before the accident does it occur to anyone that maybe he got some bad gas, if it had water in it or something it may have ran while it was moving around a lot, but then, when parked for a while the water ( which is heavier than gas) could have settled to the bottom of the tank and that would be why it would not restart. This happened to me before, it does not matter where you get gas or what grade it is,,, sometime sh8t just happens