TimCo

I was hoping there would be a "silver bullet". But, I guess for now, I'm going to trace wires directly from the positive side of the battery through the fuse/relay box to the fuel pump and see if I can pick up some more power. All the other electrics are working ... headlights, brakelights, windows, etc. I haven't found anything else thats not running. Something is wierd with this one circuit. I'll post any findings. Thanks for all the help. I really appreciate it.

ViribusUnits

I wouldn't be suprised if when the fuel pump was fuctioning there would be normaly only 8-9 volts at the terminal w/o the engine turnning.

When you jumper the fuel pump, can you hear it run? This is really easy, and really cheap. If it runs, you don't need to pull anything apart.

TimCo

Well, I never heard the original pump so I bought a new one. The original pump would not run even with a direct 12V connection to the battery. So, I installed the new /rebuilt one; turned the key; heard the pump and got a couple putts out it, bled air out of the fuel lines ... and never got it to do any more than putt once or twice. Then went thru a lot of girations; thinking that I had fuel pressure; was looking for something else ... AFM was on the list. Now I find, the fuel pump isn't working and I have 8.5 v at T5. So, I'm guessing the fuel pump doesn't have enough power to turn on. You're saying it does. Huh! I'll have to look at it tomorrow and see if I can get the pump to turn on. If there are no safety switches between the relay and the pump, I might just jumper T5 to the pump. I'll find this little gremlin if it takes all week. I want to hear this car run!

ViribusUnits

Jumper it, and see what happens.

Rember, the fuel pump relay WILL NOT work unless the engine is turning. Rember, tach feed. No tach feed, no go. For now, just jumper it.

TimCo

I charged the battery last night to be sure it was up to snuff. I jumpered the fuel pump relay (pin30 to pin87). Nothing happened; that I could perceive. I measured pin T5 had a whopping 13volts. I crawled under the back and measured the voltage across the fuel pump and found 13volts. The battery charge did the trick as far as voltage levels but did nothing operationally (as far as I can perceive). Is this fuel pump bad? I just took it out of the box. Its a brand spankin' new rebuilt bosch fuel pump.

TimCo

I applied 12 volts directly to the pump and it wouldn't cooperate.

TimCo

I removed the pump from the car; separated it from the fuel filter; removed the "check valve"; drained off the gas; wired it up; put my fingers in my ears; applied 12V; and the pump RAN.

ViribusUnits

Sounds good. Now see if the the car will run...

TimCo

I spoke to the vendor and he is going to send me a replacement pump and check valve. He said that pumps fail because they can suck a particle in and it will get stuck under the commutator ... so the pump won't run. He advised that you can run the polarity in reverse and it will sometimes spit the particle back out. But, he also said that that there might be a "flat" spot on the commutator and when it shuts down, it just may land on that flat (non-conductive) spot and give you a no-start. But apparently he felt that the best thing is not run the pump and send me a replacement. So, I'm going to put this on hold for a couple of days ... maybe remove each fuse and relay and clean up connections ... while I have that all disassembled ...

Nathan Valles

If you are thinking of cleaning up your fuse panel you might check this site. Dave A (SharkSkin) pulled his entire panel and cleaned it all up a month ago or so. Here is a link to his site.
Fuse Panel Reconditioning .

TimCo

That's a great help. Thankyou.

TimCo

Nathan,
I have to say ... thanks again for the link to sharkskin's fuse panel refurbishment page. And thanks to sharkskin; wow, he did an awesome job putting that page together. Since I first laid eyes on the fuse/relay panel, I was dying to find out what lurked behind ... "curtain #1". No more mystery ... great pics and descriptions.

Tim