Fuel pump gone bad?

[Click_It]

Here's my story and I hope someone can help.

2 tanks of fuel ago my car randomly stalled in peak hour traffic, at the time I got it going pretty quickly and put it down to bad fuel.

To my current tank, last night the car dies again while idling and starts up relatively easily. Driving home doing 50mph I feel a loss of power and see the revs go from 3500 to 0 and back again. I pull the car off the road and it dies immediately.

Engine cranks and cranks but won't fire up. The battery is fine, I'm 99% sure the starter+solenoid is fine as it's only 20,000miles old and no strange sounds, cranking like normal.

I eventually get the car going around, before it dies around the corner - now I'm just 0.4 miles from home but there is a massive steep hill between car and home.

I do get it going 1 last time but not long enough to move the car. I leave it there overnight. The starter during this time was quite hot, I wasn't cranking longer than 3-5 seconds each time and then resting 15-20 minutes in between.

After cranking the car smells flooded. I open up the air filter (carb) and use the throttle, I only see dribbling fuel, I was expecting to see a jet of fuel, not sure if that's correct or not?

So to end this long winded post (sorry!) I am now of the belief it's my fuel pump, any opinions? I've never changed one but it looks fairly small and simple. Mine looks exactly like this one.

PS: I did check spark and leads, all looked fine. Though I will replace spark, leads, fuel filter when I get this car home as they're all overdue anyway.

[FestYboy]

Pull the fuel line to the carb and put a pressure gauge in-between. You should see about 3 psi while pumping. You should also be able to blow air onto both the feed and return lines

[Click_It]

Thanks FestYboy I'll go out and buy one and give it a go. I imagine that's a handy tool to own anyway.

Well some good news, a neighbor up the road has a few SUV's out front so I thought I'd go see if he'd be willing to give me a tow. He was happy to so now my car is back in the garage at least!

I just had another look at the carb, I opened up the butterfly/throttle and gave it some juice. An initial squirt comes out followed by a dribble followed by nothing it seems. Hopefully that pressure gauge paints the picture for me.

[Click_It]

Just double checking, is this the pressure gauge I need?

My local store wants $99 for one so I found the above one on eBay Australia for $27 which looks almost identical for 1/4 the price.

[FestYboy]

No it's not sensitive enough, you need a gauge that reads to 12psi (or 1 bar) max.

[Click_It]

Okay I was wondering about that, glad I asked.

[FestYboy]

You want something like this : http://m.tomtop.com/diagnostic-tools...A8IaAoSy8P8HAQ

[Click_It]

Okay wow thanks. The one in my local auto store looked almost identical to that, but $100 AUD ($80) is a joke. I finally found another on eBay for $31. It's 0.7 bar / 10 psi which should be fine I assume.

[Click_It]

Sorry to possibly steer this in a new direction but...

I was about to order the fuel pressure gauge (I think I still will regardless of immediate need) when another neighbor stopped in and took a look under the hood. He wanted to check the spark so he tested one of the leads connecting a spark plug whilst I cranked the car, found no spark. Then he tested the 12V thing (sorry don't know its name) on the opposite side of the distributor cap (feeds 1 lead into the disty), no spark there either. He's convinced its a spark/electrical problem and nothing to do with the fuel pump. He said it could be a capacitor but is unfamiliar with these Festivas to know if we even have one.

I've attached a photo to show what I meant. Bare in mind some of this might be back-to-front being a right hand drive.

He is a bit of a "know it all" type neighbor who seems certain about everything, even the things he's wrong about, so I don't know how reliable his opinion on the Festiva is. I'd love to hear some thoughts. I have a volt meter so maybe I can start using that, I don't really know what I'm doing at this point.

[Click_It]

COIL, coil is the word I was looking for. That's what was tested with no spark. So next I'll find my voltage meter and check it more precisely. I'm hoping that's the problem as that looks easy-peasy to replace.

I have ordered the pressure guage from eBay so it won't be here for a few days. Fuel is jetting into the carb though so it's quite possible nothing is wrong with it afterall.

I'm feeling my way through this, hope to have some good news soon.

As always, your thoughts are most welcomed

[Click_It]

Update:

Ignition coil gets a solid 13V and ~10V while cranking. I'm going to assume that's healthy. Lead coming out of the coil is also good.

I can't get anything whatsoever coming out of the distributor cap, so assuming I'm getting a proper contact that could be my culprit. Maybe I should open it up next?

[FestYboy]

He wasn't wrong to check for spark, as that's required to run. Do this: remove the distributor cap and clean the contacts inside. The get some non chlorinated brake clean and hose down the inside of the dizzy and let it dry for a while. Throw it back together and check for spark again. I've come across several instances where the pickup coil has gotten so dirty that it couldn't generate a signal for the control module to run the coil. Also while you're waiting for the dizzy to dry, do a resistance check across the primary and secondary winding in the coil.

[Click_It]

Hey Festy, I've opened it part way. Looks immaculate in the distributor, do I need to open it up any further given how clean it looks?

The cap and contacts are a little dirty however so I can certainly clean those up.

Pics included.

[FestYboy]

The pickup coil sits behind that 4 toothed sprocket (2 yellow nubs in the black plastic). They always seem clean but it's surprising what comes out.

[Click_It]

Okay trying to get it off but I've near stripped one of the screws, damned impossible to budge