its an 87 with a 350tpi, I posted a few days ago but didn't put any detail behind it.

Problem is my car will crank all day and not turn over w/o the help of spraying starter fluid through it and it would run for about a half sec and back to square one. So I disconnected the fuel filter and replaced it hoping that was the problem, still nothing. So then I went back under and disconnected the inlet side to the filter to see if I crank it, it would shoot gas and nope it wouldn't.

Now today I was testing the wires to the fuel pump at fuel pump relay (filter was still diconnected) and jumped the hot wire(orange) with the FP wire(tan/white) to try and bypass the relay b/c it won't click when I put the car in run (yesterday when I was messing with it, it was clicking, now it won't?) and still nothing.
Now I'm not sure if this was the smartest thing to do but since I didn't have a test light, I cut some wire touched it to the hot side of the relay plug and then touched metal and I got no spark. So I ran a wire from another hot source to the fuel pump (thinking that maybe that hot source was the problem) and still had no luck turning the fuel pump on. Only now when i unsrew the shraeder(sp?) valve and purge it, I hear air hissout, b4 no air or pressure would come out.

I was looking at the wiring diagram and it showed an inline fuse (orng/blk, which was the original orange hot wire from the fuel pump relay connector) but I could not find it. The fuse in the fuse block was fine, but the car won't kick out any gas and I can't hear the fuel pump turn on at all.

Any ideas on what I should try next?

 

t

 

well the inline fuse is usually right next to the battery it actually comes off the positive side of the bat... can be removed if it had blown before and the PO was to lazy to replace it....

now if you jumped a KNOWN(by known i mean tested with a voltmeter...not touched to the body!) 12volt source to the tan wire of the fuel pump pigtail and didnt get blasted with fuel... then the FP needs to be replaced...

now if you havent actually tested the FP like that and have just tried to start the car with starting fluid... might not work... if the relay is blown...and you dont have a good oil pressure switch

 

Today I tested the fuel pump with from a good 12v source and it kicked on the first time, the car started up and was real choppy, I went and purged the schraeder valve and it spit gas out, so i got excited. After I shut the car off, cuz of the way it was running, disconnected the 12v source then erconnected it and the fuel pump didn't want to turn on again and hasn't since.

The realy is bad and is no longer kicking on so this was all done by bypassing it. So is the pump gone? should it be replaced along with a new relay? I hooked up a test light to see if the relays hot wire was getting power and it was, so I think the relay is gone too.

 

well i would check to make sure that all the wires to the relay were intact... no breaks/shorts then replace the relay along with the OIL pressure sending unit...

the OPSU also acts like a FP switch... when the engine has more than 4 psi of oil pressure the opsu will take over the FP if the relay dies... so you dont get stranded... and will shut off the FP if you dont have 4psi of oil pressure

and should still run the FP at startup with a bad relay just might take 6-8 seconds of cranking to build some oil pressure for the opsu to turn on the pump

 

Thanks alot for all the information, i'll do that tomrrow when I get home for school and post back with my results.
Thanks again, John

 

Question: would there be a way of telling if the oil pressure switch is faulty, or is it a part to just be swapped?
Thanks

 

Check all your fuses. Make sure all the spark plug wires are connected. The relay is bad if you turn the ignition on and don't hear the FP hum for 2 seconds. Alot of times if the oil pressure sender fails, your gauge will read full pressure even when you turn the car off. Another symptom is if the gauge erratically jumps around. It's right above the oil filter on the drivers side. They sell a special socket for the sender, but there isn't enough clearance on the back of the socket to slip it on the old sender (too long). I used a 1 1/16 wrench VERY carefully to back the sender out. First try to dis and reconnect the sender wire. To replace the in tank pump, the rear has to be dropped. It's a real PITA! Since you know the relay is bad, replace it for 11 bucks. Any codes from the ecm?

 

So today, first day in a few days I had time to work on the car, I finished removing the tank and the fuel pump and tested the fuel pump again to see if it was bad, and it was, I put the new fuel pump in and put the tank back connected all the lines again, and replaced the bad relay, now the new relay isn't clicking over!?! I haven't tried to run the car yet, b/c there are still a few more things I need to connect up, but doe sanyone have an idea as to why this one isn't working? Did I short something? I checked the FP fuse in the fuse box, and replaced even though it appereard fine, still nothing!

Also the last time the car started b4 the problems started happening, after it stalled out and wouldn't start again, it let out a puff of smoke through my cowl hood vents and I could hear alittle bt of a squeel(sp?)

Is there anythign I should look over also with that happening? I looked at the distributor connections, all seemed fine, cap rotor were good. I pulled a plug to see if it was sending spark and it was, thats why i haven't really thought this had related to why the fuel pump went bad.

Thanks john

And thanks for all the help so far!
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oh and like I said earlier, the fuel pump relay was clicking over after the fuel pump went bad, but isn't anymore.