96 monte stalling now dead

[brcidd]

Just for kicks- beat on the bottom of the tank while a helper is cranking the starter-- If car starts, then you know for sure your FP is bad and needs replaced.

[dj1111]

My daughter's Monte stalled at least a dozen times before the fuel pump finally gave up. This went on for about a half a year. Finding the wires that led to the tank was pretty easy. There's was a connector near the tank where you can test voltages and such. I'm doing this out of memory as the car blew a head gasket just before Christmas so she donated it to one of those naughty boys camps.

As far as your question about whether it's worth repairing. A wise man once told me that the least expensive car to own is to keep the one you have. How true that actually is. But it all depends on how long you plan to keep it. To spend $400. on repairing a $1000. car may not seem to be a good investment. But if you can drive it for a few more years vs spending $10,000 to $20,000 on a replacement... Well you do the math. I owned a 1985 Celebrity for 13 years and put money into it up until the end. Over all that car (including the initial $3500. and excluding things like oil and tires) only cost me about $5200. That's a great 13 year investment.

[sobek]

Fair enough!
Thanks for your replies brcidd and dj.

I did bang on the tank with a rubber mallet and the car started running for 4 seconds.
Then it died and now won't start no matter how much more I try.

This definitely points to the fuel pump, which seems to have died completely now.
I did more reading on the subject and the whole procedure doesn't seem to be that complicated.
Only issue I see is my small garage and removal of the tank, but if there was enough space to change oil, that should be enough to do the fuel pump.

So there I go, parts are ordered! (I was able to find a pump for $92, which seemed too good to be true, but it seems to be a discounted OE part).

I read in Haynes manual that on some models you need a special tool to remove lines going into the tank.
How do I know if I need it?

Link to fuel pump i bought:
http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/sk...gs+Best+Seller

[sobek]

Update.
I replaced fuel pump and the has been running great for the past 1.5 months!
$100 cost total.

Thanks for the support guys, I don't think I would take a stab at it otherwise.