Working on my daughter's Jimmy... again.

I've gotten a ton of good info searching the forums here the last few months, thought I'd join up and post a question on this one.

I replaced the fuel pump and in-tank pump harness a few months ago, then the FPR a few weeks ago. It was still a little doggish, surging after startup.
Read a few forum posts and reset the IAC the other day and it was purring like a kitten. My daughter drove it home and to work the next morning. She said it started right up and ran great. After she got of work it wouldn't even try to start, just spun.

I don't have a pressure tester... yet. Stuck a pen in th schrader valve at the back of the plenum and there's no pressure at all. I was hoping it was a leak inside the plenum bleeding the pressure off when we towed it to my house last night.

I can hear the fuel pump going when I turn the key on. Just tried turning the key on and checking the schrader again, nothing.

Here in a minute I'm going to pull the filter and see if it's clogged up, even though I can't imagine it spontaniously clogging up while it's sitting in a parking lot... I REALLY don't want to drop the tank again so I'll try anything else first... getting too old for that crap. But if the filter isn't restricted I'll start draining the tank and drop it.

My question(s)... I'm ASSuming that since the pump is making noise it must be pumping fuel... Is this a false ASSumption? I bought it at Autozone so it's the dreaded Airtek I keep reading about.

Can you guys give me some clues on what I need to be looking for as I'm checking the components out. I'm a pretty decent shadetree mechanic but every vehicle has it's own little foibles... What parts of the fuel system on these things are prone to break/fall off/wear out and cause a no pressure situation?

The original owner said he had to replace the spider every 3 years or so and I see a ton of posts related to the fuel system on these things. It's a great little truck when it's running good and in great shape. But if this is going to be an ongoing thing then I think it's time we switched vehicles... there's a mid/late 90's Isuzu Rodeo with a for sale sign on my way to work...

TIA
Von

 

And all that info points to AC Delco DelphiYes... for a number of reasons. One might be if your daughter accidently fueled up with E85. The other's name is Airtex

But you dont know whether it is reaching pressure, right? Only that leakdown is very quick.

Assuming there's no fuel pressure while the pump is running, I'd say cheap aftermarket fuel pumps
With what? Again.. quality tellsAnd then what...you start over?
When you're wrenching for your kids you want reliable, cheap to fix and safe.
I was lucky. In the late 80's early nineties, when I was providing transportation for my kids, Mustang 2.3L sticks were cheap and plentiful.

Replace parts with OEM quality and you're way ahead, as you know. If it's a Ford you buy Motorcraft.. if it's GM you buy AC Delco or Delphi.
And btw .. all gas is NOT the same. ONLY buy gas at hi volume stations and at the regions top seller brand.
I dont know where oyu live or what the brand is but it requires just a few hours of internet research to figure that out.

 

There are no E85 stations here, that scam hasn't caught on here.

I pulled the filter and mud came out, I'll change that and see what happens. Maybe get a For Sale sign and go check out that Isuzu while I'm out... be cool if I could find another 1st gen Trooper. Bulletproof.

"With what? Again.. quality tells"
He was bitching about the local chevy dealers shop prices increasing over the years... so I'm ASSuming Delco.

Von

 

Well.. all that mud came from your tank, didnt it. Guess how it got there. From bad gas station. You think Isuzu's wouldnt have the same problem?

Means the gas tank needs dropped and cleaned.
I never get in the way of someone running for the door....

 

The tank didn't look dirty when I had it off a few months ago. I imagine that filter's been on there a while... trapping dirt... which collected in the filter... making mud... that's what they do.
I'll check it out again in a few minutes after I drop the tank.
Gotta get that thing sellable...

To the best of my knowledge... all refineries filter their products. All tankers empty from the bottom and contaminants can't build up. Most of the dirt gets pumped into your tank when the storage tanks are low. I have yet to see a website telling me the levels in my local gas station's storage tanks.

Some resellers will try to dilute thier gas to make a buck, but they don't advertise that either.

"When you're wrenching for your kids you want reliable, cheap to fix and safe."

Cool, we're on the same page! For a minute there I thought you were one of those overly sensitive yet antagonistic, cranky old farts that didn't have anything better to do than cruise online forums trying to pick fights when they should be in church sucking up to God so they can think they are going to heaven.

Von

 

Why I say go to a high volume best selling brand {for area} station. They dont stay that way by neglecting tank maintenance and pumping bad gas. Where I live, SW-Central Ohio, I'm lucky.. I know quite a few people who know their cars and none ever have repetitive fuel system problems.
I beg to differ. I am not 'overly sensitive'. Been on car forums/mail lists/MB's since the eighties. Always been 'me'.
and that's personal between me and God.


And good luck with that Isu.. assume you've surfed their owners' forums to see what lies in store.

 

I can't hear ya. Ignore list.
Waiting to see if I get any reasonable answers to all my questions, not just sensless ASSumptions based on "Airtek" and "bad gas".

 

You're a trip Von... You have received sound advice, yet you basically spit in his face because of the very thing you accuse him of doing... Makes you look a bit childish and a hypocrite... The creative capitalization further reinforces the childish notion. Doesn't make it any less of a rules violation though.

Continue with that approach and see where it gets ya.

pettyfog, please don't make things worse here. If he's going to ignore you, you can ignore him right back.

 

Well, if it turns out I was out of line I apologize to pettyfog and the group. I've seen a few of his posts in other threads and he seems to be a reasonable fellow.

But... I don't consider biased, generalized comments centering around the brand of pump and "bad gas", completely disregarding both of my questions, to be sound advice or of any use at all. Especially when delivered in a condescending manner.

I will admit that one of the pitfalls of "speaking" online with people you don't really know is plenty of opportunities for misunderstanding. I'm sure that if pettyfog and I had been speaking face to face it wouldn't have gone that direction.

Are Airtek pumps crap? Could be, I won't argue that point. But I was asking for advice on how to verify that the pump truly is the problem before laying out more cash. If a product has a 100% failure rate they stop making them. If those pumps are only crap when used in these vehicles then is it the shoddy harnesses burning the pumps out? Something else?

I tried swapping relays, no difference.

The fuel tank is pretty clean, a lot cleaner than I would expect from a car that old. And the new fuel filter didn't make any difference at all, but it still needed changing.

I didn't see anything amiss on the pump assmebly, nothing came loose or broke off.

I did notice the wires on the pigtail going from the top of the assembly to the wiring harness on the frame are damaged. The insulation is a little melted.

When I was changing the filter I tried turning the key on while I had the fuel line disconnected, seat of the pants fuel pressure test...

It spit quite a bit of fuel for a second then dropped to a dribble. I'm going to check voltage at the pump and see if there's a voltage drop that would account for that.
Then I'll check it at other points and see how much of the harness I need to rewire.

I have no idea how much voltage is supposed to be there but, ASSuming again, shouldn't it be constant?

Von

 

First reply to this thread, but you must have overlooked it in your knee jerk reaction to his style of response... This is eluding to the need to actually get a test done such as you indicated in your original post...
You answered this question yourself in your first post in that you need to get it tested with a gauge. As far as the second question (what typically fails), that is covered in a multitude of other posts. FPR, nut-kit, & pump are pretty much the only things that cause a leak-down aside from a line leak external to the tank or engine which should be pretty easy to find. The Tech Article (DIY) section can be helpful.

Relays either work or they don't. The fact that the pump turns on confirms that the relay is good.

Seems pretty suspect, but why not test the pressure as per the tech article (at the schrader valve as well as at the fuel filter w/ pump dead-headed)?

The pump will only run for a few seconds on initial key-on. While the pump is running, the voltage should read similar to battery voltage and shouldn't vary more than a few tenths of a volt during operation.

Really? Again with the childish creative capitalization? Rules are rules and further violation will NOT be tolerated. This flagrant rules violation makes me not even want to respond to you... If you can't be eloquent enough to not use profanity, I'm not going to give you my time and I know that many other members feel the same way.