I am slowly working through all the electrical problems of this pretty 244 gl. It has been very predictable, and my 16 year old daughter loves the car. When she gets her license I will have to go back to my '79 242. Anyway.. here's the problem.

I drove a few miles to the store. Came back out, and the car wouldn't start. Plenty of power to turn the engine over. This problem happened once before a couple of weeks ago. That time, after about one hour of just sitting there, the car started up fine. I figured it was a quirk. My daughter just pulled up to the house and turned the car off. She forgot to raise the power windows and thought the car had to be running to raise them. No start. All the idiot lites worked. I didn't think much about it. We were home.. why worry. Then an hour later, it worked fine. Until yesterday.

Idiot lites came on as expected. All power to everything. The engine turned over like a champ.. but it never started. I noticed that I never heard the ol' fuel pump humming. I figured, heck.. time to replace the pump(s).. After reading on the archives about the change.. well I was convinced that that was the problem.

I called a friend, and drove back to the store to take the 244 home. I did bring a jumper wire to try and see if the fuel relay failed. I didn't think it was the problem, because I had just bought a brand new fuel relay and had the older one in the glove box. The first thing I did was swap relays after repeated attempts to start the car failed. I figured it must be the pump.

Well, as the subject line says.. jumping the pump fuses did get me going. It works just fine. Of course, I need to remember to disconnect the jumper when I stop the car.

BUT...I'm no electrician. I carefully searched through the archives, and I didn't come up with anything. I would appreciate any suggestions regarding how I should best attack this problem. What are the likely culprits?

I replaced the ignition switch a couple of months ago with a brand new unit. I've cleaned all fuse connections with a dremel tool. I've swapped fuses, i've swapped the relays. I do have a Haynes, I have solved other electrical problems before, but I sure would appreciate help in where should I start on this one.

Thanks in advance for your help on this one.. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!