I bought my 1991 caprice LO3 a year ago with 206k, the PO had told me he replaced the fuel pump right before he sold it to me and that the engine had been replaced only 40k miles ago and the transmission was rebuilt while the engine was being replaced, for 1400 I figured I was getting a good deal.

All was fine when I purchased except for the SES light turning on after about a half hour of continuous driving, pulled the code, fixed the problem it was the EGR valve. Simple enough right. All was good in the world of the daily driven beater caprice until recently.

A few weeks ago it started acting up, at first it would hesitate when accelerating normally, then just a few hours later in the taco bell drive-thru it just quit. I'm sitting there trying to restart my car when the lady hands me my food, I both feel and look like a complete idiot. I figure what the heck maybe it just ran out of gas( gas gauge no-worky, I use the trip and ave.~400 miles a tank, however I was only at 350mi). So I walk to the station buy a 2 gallon can fill it up, dump it in my tank, nothing.

I walk back inside the taco bell, sit down at a table call my sister and ask her to make the 1hr. trip to come pick me up. About an hour passes by and my sister still hasn't arrived so I figure WTH, I'm gonna try to start this POS. I make one attempt and it starts and runs FLAWLESSLY like it never had a problem. Made the hour long trip home without a single hiccup.

Well as time went on things got progressively worse, at first it would just stutter and stumble, then it would stall, then it was starting harder with each day, and that brings us to today. Today it stalled and would not start for anything, so I had it towed to my garage where I went to work.

My first suspicion had lead me to believe it was the fuel pump, I pull off the feed line to the TB and sure enough key on, no fuel. I troubleshot all of the relay wires and they perform as necessary. I even replaced the relay and oil pres. switch. I can hear the pump kick on but still no fuel to the tb, UNLESS I remove the solenoid and jump the power wires , at which point it runs excellently, I can even remove the jumper and it will continue to run fine. But if I reinstall the NEW relay(yes it's good) It runs like poo/or not at all.

So as a recap,

NEW relay/press switch
All wires test good
Pump kicks on in normal config
only runs if solenoid is jumpered, continues to run with jumper removed.

 

Many of these cars have a plug in connector inside the fuel tank. This is at the top of the assembly, inside the tank. Gets corroded and loses connection sometimes. Usually just as you described. A new pump will fix it for a while by moving the wires around, and jumping the relay hits it harder and might make it connect. I'd check this before buying a new pump, etc.

 

I had the same problem with my old camaro took out the pump cleaned up the wiring replaced the pump never had a problem ever again.

 

Just wanted to let anyone interested know that I found my problem, turns out the wiring to the fuel pump was frayed contacting the body causing it to intermittently ground.

 

We love it when a member reports back the problem solved & how.

 

My questions are .....

1) Did you eat the Taco Bell item with the fake beef?
2) Did you choose mild, hot, or fire?
3) Did you have the Baja Blast drink (Taco Bell is the only place I've ever seen it)?
4) Did you ever find the sister?

 

lol. I like mexican pizza's. But glad to hear the OP got the car fixed and some of us 3rd genners helped him! goooood stuff