Here's the background: I have a new fuel pump and I have had a bad fuel pump relay for a while. Finally today I figured out that the fuel pump relay was causing the hard starting that i've been experienceing. So until now, I had to crank the engine until the oil pressure switch powered the fuel pump and it started up. I replaced the relay today and everything was running perfectly.

On the way home tonight, the car suddenly stalled out on me and won't start again. When I turn the key to the run position, the fuel pump does not turn on. I thought maybe there's a short somewhere and the fusible link blew. (it was blown and bypassed when i bought the car and i replaced it a while ago). I went ahead and bypassed it again in an attempt to get home. It didn't work. The pump doesn't even turn on if i continue to crank it like i had to with the bad relay.

Aside from the fuel pump being faulty and dying on me, what else could be causing this? My idea right now is to connect the +ve fuel pump lead to constant power and see if it turns on. If it does, there's a wiring problem; if it doesn't, the pump is bad.

Anyone have any ideas of what the problem is and how i should proceed? If i cant' get it to run in the parking lot i coasted into, I'll have to have it towed for a hefty price. Thanks for any help

 

You need to do some dedicated troubleshooting.

1.) Is the fuel pump relay getting power? If so is the relay sending power to the pump? Could be a possible wiring or relay problem.

2.) Is the pump getting power at the pump if the realy is sending it? If it is and it isn't working the pump is bad.

3.) If the pump isn't getting power try and hot wire it and see if it will run and start the car.

Those are the steps I would take first.

 

thanks for your reply. After returning to the vehicle, I found out that it wasn't a fuel delivery problem.. it was an ignition problem. My distributor cap had become loose and the rotor must have struck one of the terminals. The plastic tab that positions the rotor on the distributor had broken. All that work trying to figure out what the problem was, and it was a $2 part!

 

Yup, and it's always the last thing you check. Par for the course my good man. Glad to hear you got it up and running again.