Follow up to June 2010 post:
Had pump replaced (against my better judgement - listen to your gut!!) and the problem persisted. I did find that by tugging on wiring harness going to fuel pump (just inside of rear bumper) it would start working. This worked, sometimes for weeks at a time, until now. Had it towed home where I took voltge readings at the pump connector (harness unplugged from pump). Most interesting was the 8.5VDC on the black wire when the pump didn't operate. During trouble shooting, noticed the voltage was < 0.1VDC; plugged teh harness in and the pump ran. It later failed to turn on again; voltage was again 8.5VDC on black (to chassis). Local dealership is quoting $900+ to R&R.
Any suggestions?!

 

When you replaced the pump did it come with the upgraded harness? If not, then that is more than likely still your problem. The stock harness itself has garnered the majority of the blame for the pumps not lasting long.

If you did replace the stock harness with the upgrade then I would suspect the splicing together of the wires is at fault.

 

Thanks - the harness being bad makes more sense than anything else.
If I cut the black wire and attached it to the chassis, would the pump function correctly?
Any idea why I'm getting voltage on what should be a ground?

 

Just guessing, sounds like your ground wire has a direct short in it somewhere.

 

^x2^ the gound is looking bad sence that gound for the pump isnt shared by anything else you technically could just cut it and run a new wire to chassis ground...but, then that short may cause problems down the road with other wires or possible a fire.

the wire doesnt appear to be too long from the diagram below and shouldnt be too hard to opem the wire loom and inspect the wires...

 

Thanks for the schematic - definitely helped with the troubleshooting. We decided to replace both wires (power and ground). It has worked and was definitely cheaper than replacing a fuel pump that was good!

Is the resource that you provided the schematic from available somewhere? I'd like to have one to help in the next issue.

 

the schematic is from shopkey5.com , its basicly every service manual for every car in one program. you would need a subsription to use it though.

Whats your other issue?

 

Next issue is rear wiper motor not working - I'll start a new thread to keep things clean.