My 86 IROC has been sitting for 5 or 6 years and I'm about to start the process of getting her back into shape. It has been a good car for me since I bought it 20 some years go and it was running fine when I parked it, but that was indeed a long time ago. As I started going through things I found that I wasn't hearing the fuel pump in the back tank when I turned the keyswitch on. I went through the fuses, but still no luck. Might be a relay, but I figure it is most likely the fuel pump unit itself because it is the original unit and the car has 162k on it.

After doing a little tinkering on the web I came across this great forum and found several posts here about cutting a trapdoor instead of dropping the rear end out and pulling the tank. I cut the trapdoor today (burned up a brand new dremel tool in the process) only to see that my fuel pump is a tad different that the ones I found last night.

http://www.worldisround.com/articles/12533/index.html
http://www.taekwondoplus.org/z28/seal02.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/formulapower2/fuelpump.html

All of them had 5 nuts that held the fuel pump in place and mine has a flange (not sure that’s the right word) that looks like it rotates counter clockwise to release the pump from the tank. That part is not a big deal, but I can’t see anywhere to disconnect the fuel lines which makes the trap door a mute point. I thought I would post here and see if anyone else has any insight into this situation. My guess is that the fuel tank will have to be dropped to get to it. Someone please tell me I'm wrong

 

HAHAHA you butchered your poor car and still have to drop the tank...

oh yeah welcome to TGO

 

i think theres a thread on here talking about buying metal hose connectors. they got that blue metalic look to them. you cut the metal lines and create buy connectors to join them together once the new fuel pump is in.

im not %100 sure but i knwo i saw a thread talking about this with pictures.

go to search and type fuel pump

goodluck

 

Well if you want to continue... you have to hack through all those metal lines. Then to put them back together, either you'll need to flare both sides (preferably double flares) and use a union fitting, or you can use a compression fitting on each line. I would really recommend NOT using rubber hose and clamps if you go that route. The ring that holds the sending unit in the tank is the same on all the thirdgens, just rotate it around and it will allow you to pull the sender and pump assembly once either the tank is out of the car or you cut the lines.

This is why I always tell people to drop the tank. Its not that hard. The design of the car and tank werent made for a trap door so you have to do all the work necessary to make it that way to do the job. Please dont go chasing those hard lines with your dremel to where the connections are.

 

I really didn't 'want' to do this in the first place, but since the car won't start and it's parked on an fairly inclined driveway I was a little hesitant to put it on jackstands and then start tugging around on the rusty underbody to try to get to the tank. Not that cutting sheetmetal is the most brilliant idea, but I certainly don't want my car coming off the jack stands on top of me.

I don't plan on cutting anything else. No more sheet metal and just the thought of cutting a gas line kinda gives me the *******. I would just call a tow truck and get it taken to the dealership, but I'm worried this might not be the only thing necessary to get it started and I don't want to drop a whole bunch of money just to hear the engine rumble since I'm about to take it to a guy who does great restoration work anyway. So for now, I guess I'll just be taking it on a trailer instead of driving it to him.

He'll have the car all taken apart to paint everything anyway, so I'll just have him put in the new pump and weld the piece in that I unfortunately took out.