TennesseeZ, no apologies necessary. I appreciate all input. Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChevyTech
Vortec mess he owns is one of the worst systems to diagnose the GM ever built. I dislike this system so much that I have avoided ever owning any central port injected vehicle.
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^^^ You got that right, what a pain in the ass. But the good news is.......wait for it......
IT RUNS!!
I really want to thank everyone who helped out, and will never turn down any advice or someone just suggesting things. Especially with a situation like this, because I was ready to give up and burn this thing down. So a big thanks to you all.
So now on to the resolution. When I got home from work, I made up a cable and grounded one wire with the fuel pump ground, stuck the hot into the fuel pump 12v connector on the sending unit plug, and powered it with 12 volts from a jumper box. Presto, the pump fired right up, nice and loud, and 58 psi on the fuel rail. I knew then for sure it was wiring, but I really thought it was going to be the gray hot wire to the pump. Started narrowing it down after multiple continuity tests at the distribution block/relay. That's when it was found. Shame on me, believe it or not, it ended up being a bad ground. But not in the usual spot one would think, so before I get scolded, let me explain. I had a bad ground strap under the engine. As probably everyone knows, this grounds the battery, chassis, frame together. It was so corroded it broke into little pieces just from touching it. I do take responsibility for not checking the ground the way I should have. Every time I checked the ground, which believe me was a lot, I was not checking to the battery. I was checking the wiring to the frame, which the fuel pump was grounded to, duh! I knew that ground was good there, but should have taken the extra time to run a strap from the battery to my fuel pump ground and do a continuity test, would have saved me a lot of trouble. The frame ended being isolated from the ground from the battery. I know bad grounds cause some crazy things to happen, but this was insane.
I can't take all the credit though. My neighbor came over and as we were testing he thought of the chassis ground, not sure how long it would have taken me to figure that out. Really helps having another mind thinking of different things, which is what makes these forums so great. I was ready to just splice in under the distribution block and ground to the chassis, because that's one way I got it working. But in the end, it is fixed correctly, all new grounds from the battery to the chassis/frame done the right way.
Thanks to everyone who chimed in and threw out ideas, much appreciated. I hope documenting this situation helps people out in the future trouble shoot fuel pump problems, or any electrical problems for that matter. Just remember, always check your grounds, all of them!
Thanks again, Steve