Fuel Pump Relay question

[Chris Hall]

Good idea Huw.  I was thinking of doing the same thing for the Hall sender.

Today I actually poped the top off of the fuel pump relay and got to
watch it as the engine died.  The contact held the entire time... so
I'm thinking it's not the relay.

Yet I'm more confused than ever.  Today, leaving work, the car stalled
pulling out of the space (and ran kinda rough when I started it...
wouldn't really respond well when I gave it more gas, etc), and
wouldn't re-start.  Got it running, shook the fuse box and instant
stall.  Got it started again at one point and no matter what I did to
the relays / fuse box it wouldn't stall.  It also stalled when I
touched the ECU ground wires, yet I damn near ripped them off trying
to repeat the stall and it wouldn't stall.  Weird, it seems like every
time it stalls, I just happen to touch something at that exact
moment...

Finally after it ran for 5-6 minutes, I decided to just "go for it"
and take side streets home.  A couple of blocks later it started
cutting in and out and it backfired twice in rapid sucession.  I got
pissed off so I just floored the thing, and it seemed to clear up. 
Hesitated again, and I just tried to keep the RPMs up high, figuring
the longer it'd take to reach 0 RPM, the more chance I had for it to
kick back in without having to try and re-start it.  Ran fine for
about 6 miles of heavy stop and go traffic, then kinda started quickly
cutting in and out.  Pulled over, popped the hood, and I touched the 3
Hall Sender wires, and at that exact moment, the engine died.  I
thought "hmmm. maybe these wires are only tempermental when they're
really hot!"   Got the engine started again, went back and tugged /
pushed / pulled those wires and the connector, and could NOT get the
engine to stall.  I'm still thinking all this "stalled when I touched
this" is just somewhat of a coincidence, since I can almost NEVER
repeat it.  I wish there was something I could touch 10 times in a row
and get it to stall every time so I'd know for sure...

And of course, after I played with the hall sender wires and got it
started it was perfect the rest of the way home.

One thing (LONG SHOT, like all my other ideas...) I was thinking about was this:

The car's been sitting since January because of this.  Put the cap &
rotor on, it drove fine for 5 days.  At SOME point, I put gas in the
car.  I don't remember if it was on the Monday the new cap and rotor
went in, or even as recent as Friday, the first day it started acting
up again.  I've ALWAYS put 93 octane in the tank... ALWAYS.  When I
got gas though, I put in 87.  I'm almost wondering if somehow the car
didn't like the 87 mixed with the 4 1/2 or so month old 93 that was
left in the tank or something...  Does that sound right?  How would it
run good the first half of the day, and not the second (gas goes in
before I start my day).   A neighbor of mine claims that when he goes
to the gas station I get gas at, his motorcycle runs like crap on
their gas.  Claims they have "water in their gas".  So of course I've
got that going through my head now...


By the way... there can only be -so- many things that will cause the
car to BACKFIRE like it sometimes does when it's stalling, right? 
Anyone know what those things are?  I imagine that'd help us narrow it
down...