Fuel Pump Relay question

[Chris Hall]

UPDATE!

Installed the new plug wires.  Even though the car was running FINE at
idle last night in my parking spot (after stalling 2 times on the 20
min drive home), it wouldn't start.  Then it started, ran for 2
seconds, then shut off (as if I had turned the key to "off").

Eventually I took the cover off of the relay / fuse panel under the
hood.  I put my hand on the fuel pump relay as I turned the key. 
EVERY time I turned the key, I felt the relay activate.  Oddly enough,
BEFORE I got the new cap and rotor (which it REALLY did need) I
installed the relay WITHOUT the cover, and watched the electromagnetic
switch.  It DIDN'T switch every time I turned the key.  NOW it is. 
I'm thinking it's SUPPOSED to do it every time... so there's something
weird happening in that department.  Today I felt it clicking on and
off AS the engine was cranking...

So I hold the key and let the engine crank for like 20 seconds and
then it finally fires right up and runs perfectly.  I then go and
touch the fuel pump relay (or the tray), and it dies.  I get it
started again and do nothing, and it dies a min later.  Then I get it
started again and for the hell of it I push down on the WIPER relay,
and the engine DIES.

*SO*  I think that YES, the fuel pump relay (although I can't spot ANY
cracks in the solder) might not be "holding up", OR maybe (god I hope
not) the TRAY in which all the relays sit has some kind of bad inner
connection (ESPECIALLY if it's constructed like the REAR TAIL LIGHT
bulb "trays" are, with the cheap metal held in place by melted
plastic!!!).  I'm also guessing that maybe the relay (if it has cracks
I can't FIND) might have been in the socket in just the -right- way to
where the blades were torqued in a way that any intermittent
connection was being held tight, and that's why it lasted ALL week
until I was aggressively driving last night...

ONE MORE question.  Should the fuel pump relay be getting hot?  Mine
is.  The car ran for 5 minutes and I pulled it, and it was hot.  Maybe
it's getting SO hot that the magnetic field breaks down and the switch
releases, shutting off the fuel and occasionally cutting back IN
causing my BACKFIRE problem?  (A friend of mine use to shut the engine
off in his truck as we were rolling down the street in gear, and then
when he'd put the key back to "on" the thing would backfire and scare
the hell out of people on the street.... maybe my fuel pump relay is
essentially doing the SAME THING and causing the occasional backfire
when the car is stalling???)

By the way, I did lift the relay / fuse tray up and look at all the
connectors on the bottom of it... they were all connected well and the
wires look good.

Anyone had a bad "tray" ever?  Or should I be looking at BOTH of my
relays (current and spare) being bad?  The back of the circuit board
on the "spare" is all white and corroded so yeah not a good "spare" I
guess.  But it used to work  lol.

Oh and one of the reasons I THOUGHT I eliminated the possibility of
the fuel pump relay being the "culprit" was because I jumped the relay
socket and heard the fuel pump run, but I STILL couldn't get the
engine to run.  Is this because the car CAN'T run this way, because
the other blades on the fuel pump relay have to be connected to "talk"
to the ignition control module, coil, etc for the rev limiter function
that's built in?  I always see people saying they carry a jumper in
the car, but has anyone jumped just to two slots the wide blades go in
and DRIVEN the car?  Seems IMPOSSIBLE.  I could NEVER get my car to
start with a paper clip in there, even though I could hear the fuel
pump activate...

Maybe I should just go and pay the $125 or whatever for a NEW fuel
pump relay.  If I could even FIND one in a junkyard, who knows how
much better it'd be...

-- 
Chris Hall
badcomrade at gmail.com
"making girls cry since 1974"