Ran out of gas, now I'm blowing a fuse

**Skitzo Gryphon** · 12-15-2006, 07:51 PM

I ran out of gas today literaly 15 feet from the station. I filled it up, and now the car wont start. Now I have a 20 amp fuse under the hood that keeps blowing when I try to start the car. It's blown 3 so far. I don't think that the fuel pump is comming on, but I'm not sure. Nothing comes out of the cap under the hood when I try to purge the system. My question is what is the fuse and why does it kep blowing?

I'd like to know before tomarrow, becaue the car got towed to a garage tonight, and they're going to start on it on the morning, and they already said that it's the fuel pump.. I get the idea that they're going to start with that first, and I'd like to have an alternative to that if possible.

**0rion** · 12-15-2006, 09:18 PM

the fuel pump fuse is a 20a fuse so that's probably what's blowing. Running out of gas is hard on the pump. How handy are you with tools? I would recommend doing the pump yourself if they determine that's what it is. They'll most likely take you to the cleaners on it.

**Skitzo Gryphon** · 12-16-2006, 05:28 AM

Why would the fuse blow if the fuel pump went? Or is that just the way that it is? I would do the pump myself, but the car is more than 2 hours away, and I work from Monday to Friday with no breaks, so doing it myself is out of the question. How much am I looking at if it is the fuel pump? I got a price of $350 for the pump it's self from Advanced Auto just out of curisoty, and I'm hoping that it dosn't take any more than 6 hours to put it in, so I'm kinda expecting to shell out $650 for this (at $50 an hour for labor.

) Is this a good estimate, or am I way off?

**Steve Crowe** · 12-16-2006, 06:27 AM

Way off if you can find someone who knows. Remove pump assembly from tank, replace pump alone with a standard Walbro or whatever. You will need to spend around 0.25 for some new fuel line to fix the assembly and a couple of bucks for the gasket sealant.

Labor time is no fun but you need not replace the entire assembly.

**Skitzo Gryphon** · 12-16-2006, 06:35 AM

I just got the estimate from the gargae. It's going to be $1,200.00 for everything. THis is using a pump from the dealer, because the garage won't put anything else on. Like I said, the car is 100+ miles away where I work, and I work straight from Monday to Friday.

**Steve Crowe** · 12-16-2006, 07:26 AM

I'm in the wrong business. 3 hours of work to do that pump right but I am here and you are there. I am also very old, I prefer working on diagnostics and racing stuff.

**0rion** · 12-16-2006, 08:24 PM

Originally Posted by Skitzo Gryphon

I just got the estimate from the gargae. It's going to be $1,200.00 for everything. THis is using a pump from the dealer, because the garage won't put anything else on. Like I said, the car is 100+ miles away where I work, and I work straight from Monday to Friday.

I kinda figured it would be in that price range. Seems like $1k is the average of what I see. You can buy a racetronix kit from HSW (sponsor) for a couple hundred and invest some time and save almost a thousand dollars. Do you have AAA gold plan? If so just have them tow it home for free and find a shadetree mechanic and slip him a couple hundred if there's no way you can do it. I hate to see people get done this way over a fuel pump. I dropped my tank twice last winter.....it's not a thousand dollar job.

**02z28ls1** · 12-17-2006, 07:34 AM

If you can't do it yourself you have to pay someone, bite the bullet and move on. Lesson learned- don't run a modern fuel injected car out of gas! It's hard on the pump and if it was marginal to begin with (alot of miles) it'll be the death of it.
Once you've done a few of these pumps it gets easier-like everything else. For the driveway tech I like the cut the floor board method, but realize not everybody wants holes in their floor. Fabricating a nice access panel would be the trick way. If mine goes out I probably will do that-depends on the circumstances.

**Steve Crowe** · 12-17-2006, 07:54 AM

GM did eventually provide that access but not on these cars, it cost money to put that access panel in. It can however be copied as you point out.

Put a good pump in and forget it, you won't have to drop the tank again.

**Jims455** · 12-17-2006, 05:55 PM

that sucks man. Figure out how to get the car home and whatever you do, do not pay a grand to fix this minor problem.

**shady milkman** · 12-17-2006, 06:04 PM

arent 98's fuel pumps notorious for going out? or am i thinking of the water pump.

**Skitzo Gryphon** · 12-17-2006, 08:21 PM

I'm just going to bite the bullet and pay the bill, and consider it a lesson learned. All my tools are at my house, and I have no where to work on the car down there. The towing bill would cost more to get the car from there to here than it will to have them fix it, and since I had the car towed to the garage, my towing coveage won't pay to move it again. More or less, I'm screwed. My bad. Lesson learned.

**blackvette** · 12-19-2006, 07:22 PM

I also have a 98 ss the pump needs replaced, where can you get a walbro pump, is it universal

**shady milkman** · 12-19-2006, 07:24 PM

Originally Posted by blackvette

I also have a 98 ss the pump needs replaced, where can you get a walbro pump, is it universal

check our sponsors. um summit racing is a good site to get the walbro..i'm not sure if they are universal but summit has them for the f-bods

**0rion** · 12-19-2006, 10:58 PM

Originally Posted by blackvette

I also have a 98 ss the pump needs replaced, where can you get a walbro pump, is it universal

contact Matt at Harris Speed Works ( sponsor) and get the racetronix kit. It's a really nice kit with awesome instructions and Matt is great to deal with.