90 Fuel pump gone bad

[mn454]

I have a 90 jetta and the external fuel pump is not working. Is there any way that this things be made to work again? I have checked price and its about 250 $, that alot of money for a fuel pump. Has anybody tried to make them work? Any parts stores have better prices?

[jammyjim]

Ecology. You might want to check your fuse box first. My gli kept blowing a fuse. It turned out to be the O2 censor shorting out on the exhast manifold. It is pretty easy to test your pump. Just pull it and attach it to a 12v power supply. What? YOu don't have a 12v power supply. Easy, find old computer, remove power supply, attach aligator clips to 12v output leads. You now have a switched 12v/5v power supply.

Good luck

[Doug Tatham]

Be very careful if you test it this way. Hook the clips up first before you turn on the power. It doesn't take much of a spark to start the pump on fire.
I had a pump that got gummed up by old gas. I removed it and soaked it in toluene (a lot of gas treatments are toluene) until it ungummed. I rotated it a bit by turning the gears with a small screw driver. I've bought a bunch of parts from sasponline.com, but most online stores can give a good price.

[jammyjim]

Good call Doug, i forgot to mention fuel safety. You should also wait awhile to let excess fumes evaporate.

[mn454]

Thanks for the help. I sprayed wd40 on the pump and then add 12 volts to it. It did work. It took a couple of tries, but it worked.