88 T2: Car started and ran fine. No issues.

Battery lost its charge from not being started in a month. Hooked up charger overnight. Left battery in car connected and got lazy and hooked up the charger directly to the battery terminals of the car.

Battery fully charged in 18 hours. All lights work, stereo works, and the Alarm seems to work. Arm and Disarm chirps.

Problem 1: The starter won't turn. Just clicks.
Problem 2: Fuel pump is now working in reverse flow! Not sure how this happened. or why. (Verified by disconnecting the fuel return line and saw the fuel being pumped out of it! WTF?) (yes, the fuel lines are connected correctly.)

Suspect the Alarm system with starter kill switch but not sure how the fuel pump is flowing in reverse. Unless the Alarm's 12V source was pulled from the Fuel Pump power source....??? Relay broken???

If any body has any suggestions, please HELP!

Thanks in advance.

 

A. The fuel pump doesn't pump when the car is not cranking / running. Just turning key to ON doesn't work.

B. Fuel is supposed to come out from the return line. The return line takes excess fuel from the rails that has been bypassed by the FPR and returns it to the tank.

I suspect the fuel pump is fine and you have an unrelated problem. Things to help diagnose your starter:

- Have a friend turn key to ON, then you use a multimeter to measure voltage at the single spade connector that goes to the starter from the harness. Should be 0V. Then have your friend turn the key to start, and it should jump up to 12V. If that is happening and the engine doesn't turn, the starter is the likely cause.

- If the above test passes, hit the starter with a plank from below and try again. You'd be surprised how effective this can be.

- If the starter does not receive 12V when the key is turned to start, then you need to diagnose further. The alarm has an immobilizer function (or at least some did, mine didn't). This is connected with a six-pin rectangular connector by the trailing coils. On models not equipped with the factory alarm, there is a blue plastic jumper on this connector.

To test this, search for pictures of the jumper. If you don't find one, I can supply one when I have time later. Then disconnect this connector (assuming it's connected in the first place, which I expect it would be) and use a small piece of wire to jump the connection between the two pins in the jumper connects.

Beyond that your next suspect is the ignition switch. But my money is on the plank fixing it.

 

Sure the battery is still good? When they drain, they lose a percentage of their overall charge. Might not be able to put out enough amps to start the car, especially with how old the wiring is.

and the note above regarding no fuel priming if key is set to on is true… unless you have a different ecu. My apexi power fc primes fuel with key on.

 

WonderousBread and Dr_Knight, thank you for the insight.

Found the problem:

Problem 1:
The starter was Dead! Op checked it out of the car. Worked fine but the moment I installed it the damn thing wouldn't work. Replaced with new unit and worked.

Problem 2:
The Fuel pump relay got fried and reversed the poles somehow. Its the one under the dash by the steering column. Replaced and all is working fine.

Got the car running again. Just these two issues cause me to rack my brains for 10 days! But the relief of getting my 7 back on the road is priceless!

Hope this helps somebody else.

 

Glad to hear it's fixed

Weird thing to happen with the fuel pump relay, but I guess it just goes to show us anything is possible.

 

Also glad to hear you fixed it.

wouldnt never have believed the pump would start flowing backwards, pretty wild stuff.