1985 740 GLE (no turbo).
Std transmission

hi,

my 740 has been suffering from what i thought were "classic" fuel pump problems. i've been reading through many of the FP problems for both 700 and 200 series.

fuel pump relay has been replaced. so has the main fuel pump. the feed pump _may_ have been but i have to check the repair records to be sure (these repairs have been applied over a period of ~2yrs as my problem was intermittent but now occurs with troublesome frequency and complete failure. i had severe startup problems on a few occasions).

i think where my problem differs is the fact that when my car fails the fuse to the front fuel pump blows. replacing the fuse sometimes permits short drives but the car eventually fails completely so that I DON'T NEED TO TRY TO TURN THE ENGINE OVER to blow the fuse again. i simply have to turn to on position II and i can hear (and see the spark!) blow.

the last time this happened, by the time the car arrived at the repair shop (250km from where the car died) and the mechanics had a chance to look at it the fuse stopped blowing. thus they were unable to do much troubleshooting other than to check some wiring.

does the fact that my front-FP fuse blows in position II mean i have a problem that differs to "classic" FFP problems? are there factors other than a well-hidden short that can cause the FFP fuse to blow? i've read that faulty feed pumps can cause trouble but that normally causes a noisy front fuel pump rather than the fuse to blow.

i hate to lose this car. it's probably the best i'll own and when it runs it runs so well (that sounds strange but it's true).

any help appecriated. i am hesitant to take it to a different repair shop only to get another large bill that didn't address the root cause.

cheers

steve