Fuel Pump help (1988)

[thefridgeisempty]

Hello friends,

My dear Festiva quit drinking gas yesterday. I took the line apart at the fuel filter (went ahead and replaced it as well) and no gas whatsoever when trying to start.

I'll just say I'm a novice when it comes to car repair. Fuel pump? What just occurred to me is that perhaps the pump is located after the filter on the gas line, in which case my clever little diagnostic test was meaningless. Is the pump that little guy that's sitting on the engine that the line runs into after the filter? Like I said, novice. Additionally, is that the right place to look for my trials?

Don't make fun, any help and other thoughts would be appreciated as always. Cheers.

[shadetree]

Yes you are correct!! Why not post your address and maybe I can ship you one if your not to far !!

[WmWatt]

The fuel pump on the '88 is at the driver's end of the engine block, at the top, at the back. It's mechanical with a lever which sits on a cam on the cam shaft. You can test the line which comes out of the carburettor side of the pump. Stick it in a container to catch the gas. Very easy to replace is defective.

[thefridgeisempty]

Thanks. I have regained the courage to continue.

Tested the fuel pump on the OUTLET side, and had some pressure and gas. Any knowledge on just how much PSI I'm looking for? Visually, the stream looked to be pretty substantial, though again, I don't really know what I'm looking for. Hooked up to a gauge, it didn't read much more than 2-4 PSI. Is that bad enough even though the pump is at least doing something similar to its original design?

Additional diagnostic efforts:
Sprayed starter fluid straight into the carb while it was being cranked and nothing. Double checked spark and we're good there.

Go ahead and replace the pump?

[wybnrml]

The mechanical pumps only pump at 2-5 PSI, so it should be fine.

[88FestivaLX]

I was having issues like that with mine so I finally just replaced the pump. Took about 5 minutes and everything was good afterward!

[FestYboy]

when was the last time the timing belt was inspected or changed?

[thefridgeisempty]

Checked the compression as a test for timing. Read 120-90-90-60.

Can we go back to my test of starting fluid straight into the carb? I have spark and (some) compression, so why wouldn't it fire? Could the carb be plugged up?

[FestYboy]

90 and lower is too low to light off, you only have one good cylinder there guy!

BTW, checking compression won't tell you if your timing is correct or not, check your timing!

[WmWatt]

Doubt the car would suddenly quit in a compression issue.? However compression across cylinders should not vary by more than 5%. I'd try compression test again and do both wet and dry, ie. after doing first test do again putting a teaspoon of oil in each spark plug hole. Hopefully there was something off with the first test. I had to do more than one test before I got it right first time.

If compression is off and car will run you can try a chemical cleaner in the oil which may improve compression which could be low due to carbon build up on the valves. Cleared up a low compression problem my car had on one cylinder. The underside of the valve cover was sooty due to carbon buildup on one exhaust valve.

[Festy46]

When you do your compression check, make sure you hold the throttle wide open so the engine can get air. If the throttle is closed and the compression is already weak, it could make it look even worse. Also, make sure you crank the engine over the same number of revolutions for each cylinder i.e. don't crank one cylinder 5 times and another 15 times.

If you have a timing light, hook it up to the #1 cylinder and check the timing mark while cranking the engine. If you do have spark, just cranking the engine with the ignition switch on should make the timing light work. If the ignition timing is off, try moving the distributor to correct it. If you can't move the distributor far enough to correct the ignition timing or if you can and it still won't start, your valve timing is probably off. Either the belt jumped, ripped off some teeth from the belt, or possibly the camshaft sprocket bolt came loose and let the sprocket move off the locator pin.