Will not start after draining the battery

LEON ALLEN

MEMBER
1987 CHEVROLET S-10
2.8L
6 CYL
4WD
AUTOMATIC
168,000 MILES

Drove my truck to the store left the lights on when I came back out the battery was dead. So I took the battery home and charged it. When I went back to install the battery I went to hook up the positive cable and it sparked and now truck turns over but will not start! Somebody got under the fuel tank when I crank it and said it must not be getting power to fuel pump, but I am not sure where I should start. I did check the fuses under the drivers side dash and all were corroded so I cleaned them up but nothing. Any ideas? Maybe one of the three relays located behind the power booster? Please help

4 Replies

JOETECHPRO

MECHANIC
705 POSTS

Hey LEON ALLEN,

I would advise checking all of the fuses in the under hood fuse box.

The fuse for the fuel pump will be under the hood not in the interior fuse box.

Hope that helps, let me know if they are all okay and we can move on to further tests.

Regards, Joe

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Thursday, March 28th, 2019 AT 5:19 PM

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,873 POSTS

Hi guys. Also be aware, if you do not hear the fuel pump run for one second when the ignition switch is turned on, there is a common problem with these vehicles when they have a steel fuel tank and it gets very rusty. The ground for the fuel pump doesn't use a wire. It is made through the tank's straps.

To tell if this is the cause of the dead pump, ground the ground lead of a test light on a good, clean place, then touch the probe to the gas tank. If the test light turns on when the fuel pump is supposed to be running, including when cranking the engine, the tank has a bad ground.

To repair that ground problem, drill a small hole in the flange where the top and bottom halves are welded together. Drill outside that weld seam. Run a self-tapping screw in there and connect a wire to it. Connect the other end of that wire to a paint and rust-free point on the frame or body

This all assumes you only have a dead fuel pump. You didn't state if you checked for spark yet. Too many people get hung up on the first thing they find missing and forget to look for additional symptoms. By far more crank / no-starts are caused by a loss of fuel and spark. The least number of these no-starts are caused by a loss of only one of those systems.

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Thursday, March 28th, 2019 AT 5:47 PM

LEON ALLEN

MEMBER
2 POSTS

Where would the fuse for the fuel pump be located under the hood? Did you mean the relay?

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Friday, March 29th, 2019 AT 6:02 PM

JOETECHPRO

MECHANIC
705 POSTS

Hey LEON ALLEN,

I have attached the fuse locations below. You are looking for the ECM B fuse at the bottom left.

This may be the interior fuse box you were checking before I cannot find the location. Check the diagram against what you have there.

If blown replace the fuse, you may have another issue causing the fuse to blow so monitor the vehicle after replacement.

If this is the problem let us know and we can run you through what might be causing it.

Hope this helps.

Regards, Joe

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