My 89 TPI (350) died on me several times on the way home. Finally coasted the car into the garage. Tried to restart, nothing. I have spark, When I spray starting fluid into the throttle body it will run for a few seconds which leads me to a fuel issue.

Turned the key on to see if I could hear the fuel pump spooling before cranking and of course I didnt hear anything.

Does this mean its a fuel pump or could it be the fuel pump relay?, or do I have another problem. Any advice would be helpful

 

Anyone??? TTT

 

I would suspect the relay. When my fuel pump was failing it took several weeks to fail. Fuel pressure was low, engine ran poorly.

 

Check the relay first, and of course the fuse; if all that's good, and you've got 12V at the wire going into the gas tank, then it's pump time.

Fuses and relays don't usually die gradually and intermittently. That points strongly toward the pump.

 

i had the same problem but in my case my fuel gauge was bad readin 1/2 tank and i ran out of gas so maybe outta gas?
just tryin to help

 

i also had one bad injector do this to me. Don't use the starter fluid anymore . It can harm the engine. Let us know how it goes with the relay

 

My uncle had this problem with his old ford pickup. Would start as long as we were spraying starting fluid into it, or physically dumping gas into the intake.
Ended up being a bad relay of some sort I believe. Whatever it was, he ran wires and bypassed the problem so the pump gets power as soon as the cars key is "on".

 

what kind of preasure are we dealing with at the rail

disconnect each injector seperatly and start the car, if it runs better with one of the injectors disconnected then the injector is grounding out the circut and causing it to run bad

make sure that you are getting pulse to each injector also, via noid light

 

I would think it would be the relay ONLY if the oil pressure switch was bad or missing.
I am not sure where they are on the 89's, but on my 86 and my 88, it is right next to the oil pressure sender , which is reight next to the distributor.
Oil Pressure Switch is designed to turn on the fuel pump when it reaches 3-5 psi of oil pressure. It's a backup for the relay.

Check for voltage at the pump connector under the car behind the back seat.