1982 Fuel pump

[xfire482]

Hello,
Had my first fuel pump problem last summer, my mechanic replaced the pump and the car ran fine. Took the car out of storage this spring, ran fine for a few weeks then died again. I used the service manual to diagose the problem myself and ended up replacing the fuel pump (OK, first pump might have been a lemon). Car ran great with this new pump. Went to start the car 2 days ago and the GD thing wont start. How can this be possible? I cant believe that I got another bad pump! So far I checked the fuses, checked for spark, jumped the oil pressure switch, swapped out the relay, connected 12V to terminal "G". I drained out as much of the old fuel as possible (the tank was quite clean inside) and replaced the fuel filter inside the tank when I replaced the pump. Please, what am I missing????

[terry82]

lets start with, right now do you have power to the pump?if you have power to the pump can you here it running?if the pump is running are you getting fuel?if the pump is running but there is no fuel,i would pull the pump and look at the little rubber line that goes from the pump to the metal line .

[xfire482]

Thanks, I forgot about the small rubber hose. Anyway, I pulled the pump and the hose was intact. I previously mis-read the CEL, it was flashing 12 which I thought was a no code, but when I checked the service manual, it's just the first three flashes of 12 then the code comes up. Code 12 is something about not getting the signal from the dist which might involve replacing the ECM. I'm glad that I something to track down, hopefully this will resolve the issue.
Thanks,
Tom

[JohnGrawcock]

You always get code 12 when the key is in run position without the engine running.

[xfire482]

Thanks John, that makes sense, wouldn't be any dist signal to the ECM if the motor isn't running. I thought that I had this thing figured out, I guess not.

[xfire482]

OK, I checked out all the sensors that the ECM looks at before the cars starts, everything seems good. Replaced the fuel pump (again) with a Delco unit and the car started right up. I ran the car around my neighborhood for about 15 minutes and all seemed well. Following morning, the car would not start!!! Anyway, after I calmed down, I thought about the capacitor that is on the wire in the tank. Could the capacitor be causing my intermittent problem? Is the capacitor necessary? Can I replace it with wire? I'm hoping this is the answer.
Thanks,
Tom

[geekinavette]

Might be a flaky connection that you "fix" temporarily when you swap the pump (by disconnecting and re-connecting the electrical connector).

Be interesting to see what happens if you plug in one of the "old" pumps...