1988 accord dx fuel pump problem

[emill]

Hello everyone. New to the site so forgive me if this thread is in the wrong place. I have a fuel pump problem on my 88 accord dx. It has a carb not efi . The pump will run sometimes and sometimes it will not. I know the fuel pump is good because i can hook it up to another battery and the pump runs and the car runs fine. Today i was checking the connector that plugs into the pump and it has no power but once the car is running it does have power. I have replaced the fuel cut off relay after reading about it here that it is known for causing a lot of problems. My question is ..... Does the plug not have power until the car is running? Also what could be causing the plug to not have power until after it is running. Any help would be welcome.

[bryan42688]

fuel pump is getting ready to go up i have a 87 dx and mine worked sometimes and then finally it died replace it before you need to havea tow

[russiankid]

The connector only gets power when you turn the key to the ON position, which is comes on for 2 seconds. Then, it will power on when the car is cranking and finally when it is on. If the pump is still original, I would go ahead and replace it.

[emill]

The fuel pump was replaced about 4 or 5 yrs back. Do not know how long it was made to last because i put whatever kind i could find in it at the time. So do you think anything is wrong with the relay or any other part of the electrical system or do you think it is just the pump going bad. I am trying to sell the car and it would run fine for a few days then it would not run for a while then it would run for a few days then quit...etc...etc... Of course it would run fine until someone would come look at the car.

[jigga89SEi]

I personally dont know carbbed to well.. but do they have a main relay? I know that's a huge issue in older hondas..

[emill]

After looking on the site i found that out so thats why i replaced the fuel cut off relay. I guess it woks like the main relay. But after reading one of the posts on this thread about the fuel pump going bad it makes sense because the other day the pump would not work even after hooking it up to another battery. Then yesterday it started working. I thought i had burned it up or the connections on the pump were not making good contact. I may roll the dice and get another fuel pump.

[Dr_Snooz]

For what it's worth, there is a fuel pump diagnostic procedure on p. 11-45 of this manual:

http://honda.roadpwnage.com/manuals/pages/usdm-accord-1989-full.php

It's always good to verify that a part is bad before paying money to replace it. If it isn't bad, there are a variety of other tests for fuel system components in the manual so you should be able to find the bad part using it.

[emill]

Well so far so good. Replaced the fuel pump and it is working good so far. I hope that was the problem. I turned the key and hear the pump prime for 2 sec then turn off every time. Thanks for everyones help.