This may or may not help, but lets toss it out there, was this car inside or sitting out in the weather? Had a very similar incident with Inga after a winter (Texas winter) sit up. She needed tires and some front end work so to save money on insurance and since we had more cars than drivers parked her out front. In hind sight, should have covered her, meant to but never gotta round tuit. Got a notice from the city about a possible abandoned car violation, the license had expired a month before. No problem just had to go to the court house and get new tags. But to avoid a tow or ticket, decided move her to the garage. Tried to start her and had same issue where she would hit, try to run for just a second, and then die. Not all the time by the way, you could crank on her for a while before she tried to start sometimes and later did smell gas. Had to get some help and push her around to the garage.

Checked spark and the coil wire was snapping away when you held it to the intake manifold. You could give her a shot of starter fluid into a vacuum line on top of the TB, and she would run like she was stolen until the fumes were consumed. Tried to do the pump jump on the fuse box and you could hear the pumps running. Still had the same issue, so based on that and BB input headed off to fuel filter and Fuel pressure regulator land assuming it was still fuel as the problem. None of that made any difference, but give it a shot of starter fluid and wham she fired right up every time.

The cause of all my woes was the Fuel Pump Relay, but not the Fuel Pumps failing to get voltage! The pumps were running but with all that starter noise it was hard to hear the relay close.

Decided to make one more try and did not like the sparks when you added the jumper on the fuse panel. So decided to make a switch instead. In doing that Inga fired right up and ran, and after I raised the garage door so CO2 was not an issue did the dance of joy. A new relay fixed the problem, and later found why jumping the pumps did not work. There are two contacts in that relay, one sends voltage to the fuel pump, and the other contact sends power to the AMM!

Proved this later on the bench with a 12V power supply and a ohm meter, just one contact was stuck open. Popped off the cover and there was all sorts of white chalky growth from evaporated H2O and its after affects. Seeing that and having a PUP spare now, just tossed into the refuse.

Figured out how water got in there in the first place much later. After a nice hard rain walked by Inga in the drive way and heard what sounded like fuel pumps buzzing. The passengers side floor board was soaked and the still dangling relay was filled with H20. That fix was another post.

With all that long possibly boring stuff said, here is what started up Inga. You could just stick a new or know good relay in there of course. Took light switch (did not have a smaller switch in the stash oh parts) and a plastic electrical box wanting it to be insulated. Ran a 16 gauge wire to a yellow male spade lug and tied it to one side of the switch. Took two wires of the same gauge with spade lugs on them and tied to the other side of the switch. Pulled off the fuel pump relay and put the single wire side of the switch in the Red wire. Put one of the paired wires into the Yellow & Brown wires contact, the other wire into contact with the Yellow/Red wire. These are from memory and from a 86 model colors (disclaimer). Flipped the switch, the pumps whirred, the engine fired right off. Flip the switch off and the engine would quickly die. Actually drove her with the newly placed license stuck on the windshield, new proof of insurance in the visor pocket, and the light switch flipped on to buy a new fuel pump relay.

Still have the switch under the deck floor and every time there has been a no start, head to the back and whip it out. Labeled the wires later and added a light switch cover. Have now added a red banana jack to the red wire contact, and a long black wire with a clip on it to a black jack. That allows you to measure the 12 volts by clipping the wire to chassis and measuring across the jacks.

Of course you could just try a new relay......or pull of the ground wire on the battery and unplug the AMM connector, put the battery lead on and see if she fires up.

Hope this helps,

Paul