1997 GTP fuel pump issue, pretty sure

[clharper83]

A week ago the car was taken to the store and would not start, acted like it was running out of gas. I went back up there some 12 hours later and car started right up with no issues. I replaced the fuel filter just to be safe and as it turned out that seemed clogged. Also, with the occasional slight stall while driving, but I thought that was from running a nearly empty tank (not by choice, that snow we had set me way back)
Now this has happened again and I have had no success with getting the car started, except spraying starter fluid into the manifold, so I know it can fire up. I have checked the fuse, swapped the relays, done the pin trick on the relay to bypass the resistor, and last thing I checked was the fuel lines themselves. I am a self taught mechanic, thank god for internet, so I have never relieved the fuel pressure before, but from what i have read that valve at the front of the fuel rail is for that and pressing the inside tab down i had a dribble of gas come out, nothing more so my next step was to pull the line from the fuel filter at the back and again had a small amount of gas but not the face drenching pressure I am used to .
Taking one step back, this car is still in a Walmart parking lot so i didn't want gas everywhere. The one thing i did try was to modify some leads for a multimeter and try the plug holes, of the four holes one got 12 volts when I turned the car on, it would stay on a few seconds then go off, the other hole got me about 2.5 volts steady when the key was turned. I over the dinging and key turn sounds I couldn't tell if I heard that familiar whine or not so tried everything I could think of to pinpoint it a fuel pump issue.

I tried to research as much as I could before throwing this out there and just hit a point where I am stuck.

So, to all of those more schooled on this then me , is it narrowed down to the pump? Did I miss anything or any tricks that I have not yet discovered?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[richtazz]

from everything you've described, most likely your fuel pump is bad. You've bypassed the resistor, checked for voltage at the pump and still have no fuel pressure, so its fuel pump time.

[tblake]

At the fuel pump plug measure voltage between the black wire and the grey wire for the pump circuit. Although it sounds like you have the right voltage there already so I agree with Rich, time for a new pump.

[brcidd]

I'd feed that FP circuit 12v continuous- then get under it and beat the snot out of the fuel tank with my fist- there is a good chance FP will come on and then you can start car and at least drive it to where you can change the pump. I've done several this way and have about 75% chance the pump will come alive.

[rkvons]

Originally Posted by brcidd

I'd feed that FP circuit 12v continuous- then get under it and beat the snot out of the fuel tank with my fist- there is a good chance FP will come on and then you can start car and at least drive it to where you can change the pump. I've done several this way and have about 75% chance the pump will come alive.

Here here... me too!

[clharper83]

Thanks for the replies, even if it is bad news. I did try tapping the top of the pump a few times, carefully because of the plastic, while I was doing my voltage checks and got no response. Based that on my times with older really cheap vehicles and the starters. I will try and feed it 12Vv and smack the tank and see what that does, at this point worst that will happen is nothing

[clharper83]

I am not entirely sure I did the process totally right, my wires were a greenish, purple, black, and black with a stripe, the greenish one was the one that i got 12 volts for a few seconds, I had another battery swapped so i just used that one to get my constant in a few different combinations and hitting the tank with no luck. In the process of working a tow so I can get it home and really focus on figuring things out, learning "in the field" just isn't doing it for me this time.

Thanks again all