She died on me twice the other day. Once on the way to work and again on the way home. Both times in convenient locations I must say, but Houston traffic is bad enough without thinking it might be your turn to cause the traffic jam. I just gave her a new cap, rotor and wires with a timing tweek a couple weeks ago so I thought it'd be a matter of a quick driveway fix that afternoon. But she had other needs.
As I was putting the final touches on the timing she stumbled for a while then quit and wouldn't restart. I pushed her into the garage and began arguing about all the relays getting re-soldered, and all the vacuum leaks fixed, etc. Then I recalled the website http://www.stepbystepvolvo.com/. It was all I needed to diagnose the bad fuel pump.
This was a bit tricky however. I learned that I would get fuel delivery without the main pump working but not in the volume required for road driving. That's because the tank pump is still doing its job by feeding the main pump and flowing through to the rail. But the main pump is the beast that keeps the injectors fed and alive. I removed the main pump and did a somewhat risky bench test that indicated the pump was good even under 45psi back pressure. So I figured ok, the pump is good... must have been a loose wire. But after I got it all back together, the dang thing didn't work again. That is, not until I smacked it a few good times with a screwdriver handle. That told me the problem was intermittent at best. A quick trip to Autozone and I returned home with an Airtex Master/Fuel Pump. Stuck it in and it sang a beautiful tune.
I can tell all you people that haven't worked with a new fuel pump that you will know if your fittings aren't tight. But that's another story.
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