Well the saga continues in trying to diagnose what's wrong w/ my car... short recap: car will intermittently shake like crazy, tach bounces around, car stalls.

Okay... i replaced my cat w/ a straight pipe thinkin it might be a clogged cat - still have the problem.

Tonight i was sitting at an intersection and was watching the tach jump all around, from the 2500 range down to 500 and everywhere inbetween. When I went to accelerate the car hesitated/shook like always (didn't stall out tho...thank ***). To me this would seem like some sort of electrical/ignition short or something. Seeing as i'm not too sure exactly where to start looking for problems i need some ideas of what to check. Checked plugs cap and rotor recently and they all seemed fine (unless there is a hairline crack in the cap i can't see). All the wires seem fine, with one being slightly burned (rubber gone but all insulation intact). Fuel pump was also replaced last week. Can anyone give me some ideas as to what i can look for?

Others have also said that it could very well be the fuel pump dying on me. I thought it was this too until tonight when i noticed the tach bouncing all around while i sat at a light. I wouldnt think that the tach would do that if the fuel pump was bad, but then again im not an expert.
I have held off on replacing the fuel pump seeing as i didnt have the time this weekend to drop the tank, and don't wanna pay someone to do it.

Three more quick semi-related questions...
1) What kind of fuel pumps do people recommend? Holley or Moroso or what?
2) I've heard it mentioned before but would like some more opinions on installing an inline fuel pump with one still in the tank. Now if it is in fact a dying FP in the tank, would the inline pump be able to make up for it or would it just make things FUBAR?
3) If i do go and replace the fuel pump, should I put another one in the tank or install an inline pump? I am running a 350 TBI right now so it doesn't require a helluva lot of pressure - - but im planning to get a 383 stroker kit soon (if it makes a difference). I'm not worried about the extra noise an inline one might produce (car is loud now w/o the cat) and figure it'd be easier to replace down the line.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

BAK,

I'd suggest starting by doing a thogough general electrical inspection. Check all the engine, ECM, and chassis ground connections. Take a good look at the wiring around the distributor and coil.

Since you had a fuel pump replaced, I wouldn't suspect a failure there. It would be easier to test the fuel pressure and verify the pump than to speculate and tear into it again or add an inline pump.

 

I had similar problem, I bought a 89 RS 305 tbi last month, Im not an ace with cars but i can hold my own, same problem weak at idle all the way up to about 2500 then it would level out till about 3500 and it would drop out again, so I thought maybe electrical or dirty fuel filter , make a long story short I brought it to a mechanic and he siad it must have had this problem before, someone has already replaced every sensor and most of the fuel line, he tried tune up distributor (he also checked fuel pressure which was a little low but o.k.) so he decided to drop the tank low and behold the f***ing tank had a tiny stress crack in it new tank new fuel pump (car has 132000) the car runs great! 884 dollars later ( I had some other work done to it) tank and pump were about 300 maybe do a fuel tank pressure test I could have save some money and aggrevation by going through emissions testing first they would have detected the weak tank pressure good luck!