How to test fuel pump

[SBS]

Hi,

To make a long story short.... I ran out of gas, put a few gallons in, car still won't start.

My first thought was the PassLock security feature messing up (its happened before), but the usual remedy of waiting 11 minutes doesn't work (tried multiple times.

So my next thought was that I had put some bad fuel. In Trying to syphon it out I learned that Pontiac has some sort of syphon blocker in the fuel tank... so that didn't work. My next thought was to disconnect the fuel filter and let the pump drain the tank. With the filter disconnected and the key "on" no gas... (the fuel filter was still on the line coming out of the tank... the engine side was disconnected).

So this led me to think it was the security thing... since the fuel pump wasn't pumping. I got a code reader but it showed that there is no error code.

Then I decided to pull the gas tank and drain it myself. In doing so I realized that the fuel filter was clogged... really clogged. Problem solved?

I decided to make sure the fuel pump is working before re-assembling the whole thing. So I connected the black and yellow wires to (-) and (+) respectively and heard a quiet whirring noise. I then stuck the pump into a bucket of gas to see if gas would be pumped out.

This is where I have the problem. The fuel filter squirts a little gas out of a hole in the top of the electric pump. This ends up partially filling the tan colored canister that the pump sits in. However, nothing comes out of the fuel line. I have no filter on it and the screen looks clean.

Any suggestions? How are we supposed to test these pumps?

Thanks,
Sal

[GTP Dad]

Put in a new fuel pump. When you put fuel in and turned the pump on fuel should have poured out of the discharge end of the pump. If not the pump is bad and needs to be replaced.