here is a very nice super simple fuel pump 'power to it' trick.
requires only one tool..
a small screw driver or even a paper clip.

don't even need the keys for the van.
this is to run the fuel pump ..
downstream of all relays and switches that control it.
as a test.

open rear hatch,
remove engine cover lid
remove cover from relay box on left side.
the Fuel Pump relay is the right one.
( heck ..a body could use this trick to pump old gas out of a parts van
say ..before that gas gets too old ) .

jump, with your small screw driver the top wire and the very bottom wire .
( this routes Batt voltage on the red wire, to the double white wire on
the bottom ) .

if that makes your FP run ...and your fuel pump  doesn't run  otherwise
when it should ..
you can figure the fuel pump , the wires, and its ground are working.

on one 2.1 waterboxer  I dealt with ..
intermittent no-start.
you could also drive it 9 miles with no problems..
but then ..intermittently ......wouldn't fire up, no ignition.

that one turned out to be a Hall Sender in the distributor.
New one of those fixed it very nicely.

scott
www.turbovans.com

On 5/10/2012 7:53 PM, Robert Fisher wrote:
> Here we go again. Van had been running normally for a while after fixing
> (?) my no-spark issue. Then (much later) it began to have little
> hesitations; a very brief, but seemingly complete loss of power while
> driving. It never killed the engine- sometimes it didn't happen at all,
> sometimes it happened a lot. This kept up over several tanks of gas. It
> usually only happened after the first mile of driving if it was cold, but
> once or twice happened almost immediately after taking off. We couldn't
> work out a consistent pattern. If anything it seemed to happen the most
> when driving on a north/south road. Go figure.
>
> I ran it with and without the O2 sensor, no change. I checked a bunch (but
> not all) of the wires and grounds. Nothing obvious jumped out. Eventually
> it tapered off and just quit doing it; neither of us has noticed it for
> more than ten days. This is my only daily driver at the moment so it's hard
> to get any decent block of time to troubleshoot.
>
> Well I have all the time I can find now 'cause it stopped running again. My
> wife drove my daughter to school at oh-dark-thirty for a field trip; the
> van ran absolutely normally. When she got back in it to come home, it
> cranked but wouldn't start. When I got to the van I looked it over for the
> usual suspects I didn't see anything obvious so I tried to start it. I
> immediately noticed the lack of 'buzz' from the fuel pump. No vibration at
> all when the key is turned to first position or when cranking. Put the
> meter on it and got no voltage, so we dragged it home.
>
> I pulled the pump and put 12v to it. It spun up, no unusual noises or other
> noticeable issues. I ran it in reverse for a few seconds just for GP, all
> seemed well so I put it back in. On having my wife crank the van there was
> no voltage again with the key in first position, but I got 10.~ volts when
> cranking. However the pump didn't feel like it was running and of course
> the van didn't start.
>
> I'm going to go through the Bentley and try some of the tips in this thread
> tomorrow; I'm just running out of daylight now and I wanted to get this
> written down before I forgot something.
>
> Anything jump to anyone's mind for when I get back on it?
>
> TIA,
>
> Cya,
>
> Robert
>
> '87&  '86 2.1/Auto GLs
>