Cougar

Well if it starts up fine and only runs for a couple seconds and then dies it sounds to me that the fuel pump is being shut down for some reason. Check the ECU for error codes. As a test, you might also try bypassing power to the pump to see if that keeps it running.

I'm not sure what to say about the crank position. I would try to get 2 & 4 in the right position and see what happens.

Check the timing belts to make sure one isn't broken.

I would first check into the left side of the engine for a timing belt problem. You may not be able to get both of those cylinders as close as the right side but hopefully it will be closer after resetting the belt.

I think the main issue for the pump is if the engine is injected. Fuel injection requires the pump to run at a higher pressure than a carburated model.

You might have a bad fuel pump or fuel pump relay causing the trouble. If you can keep the engine running by spaying short bursts of starter fluid into the intake every so often then check those areas.

You should be able to use regular gas with no problem. This may mean the timing is slightly advanced.

I'm not sure which ones they are as there are a number of connectors in that area. Since the engine fired up it looks like this case is closed, unless something else comes up. Glad you found the trouble and now you can enjoy the nice car. There are some test connectors that are single wires that should only be connected when doing a test but assume the ones you connected are different from those.

I am back home now and have access to my service data. Here is what it shows. Fuse 11 provides power to the coil and fuel pump relay (I think that was mentioned already). So with the ignition OFF you should have good continuity between fuse 11 and the plus side of the coil but that isn't happening apparently . It has already been dertermined that fuse 11 has power on it and is a good fuse. The b/w power wire from fuse 11 goes through a couple of connections before it gets to those locations. One connector is called F66 according to my '88 manual. The other connector is F98. If these connectors are the same for your model year then they are located up in the far corner of the dash on the firewall, near the driver's door jamb. There are 4 connectors in a line. The second on the left is F66 and the fourth is F98. By just pulling the connectors apart and reconnecting them you might solve this trouble.

Does the power to the coil come from the ignition relay? I can't remember.

You need to make sure that the suggested electrical areas are getting voltage to them using at least a test light probe to verify the voltage.

Along with checking the connectors you should also check the fuses in the dash and under the hood to make sure that they are all ok. Especially make sure fuses 5,11, and 12 in the dash are good. Also check the voltage on the fuses using a test light probe. If the fuses are ok then make sure voltage is getting to the ignition system. It would also be good to make sure that spark is getting to the plugs.

It kind of sounds to me there is a loose connection somewhere to the TPS sensor that may be causing the intermittent trouble. You might try checking the voltages on each of the pins while the engine is running ok to have as a reference. Then check the voltages when the trouble happens again.

You may be correct, I'm not sure either. Another possible area is the fusible links. It is pretty common to have connection problems there.

I would suspect the fuel pump relay as the problem.

Good deal. Thanks for the update.

Looking at some data it shows the red/yel ties also to the blk wire of the TPS so I would say that is the return side of the circuit. The red wire may be a 5 volt reference power supply lead. I don't think it ties to 12 volts.

If the engine is running smooth then the wires are doing the job.

Hats off to Yohy for posting the diagram. Thank you. Looking at the drawing you can see that pin 3 of the connector also ties to pin 2 of the other sensor. Check to see if there is voltage between pin 3 and ground. You should have some there from what you stated earlier. Then move the probe from pin 3 to pin 2. You should see the same voltage there also. If you don't then the wire between the sensors has a break or bad connection. Actually, the drawing shows pin 1 is the high or supply side of the sensor elements so you should see the highest voltage there.

Some current has to flow through any circuit for it to work and thus there will be a voltage drop across any resistance in that circuit. Ohms Law must prevail.

Using a multimeter to measure the voltage is a better way to test this circuit. It won't load the circuit down like the light will. Another thing; to me it shouldn't matter if the tank is full, empty, of something in between. You should have some sort of voltage across both of the sensors at all times. I recently found out that the fuel level sensors are wired in series with each other. Does at least one of the wire colors match on each of the sensors. If so, check the resistance between that wire. There may be a break in it. Also try measuring the resistance across the sensor with two connections on it.

You stated in your original post that you didn't have any voltage at the connection to the suspected bad sensor. You also didn't state how you tried to measure the voltage. If it was across the leads or with reference to ground. Regardless, it seems to me that you should have had some sort voltage reading there normally, even if there was a problem with the sensor inside the tank. So it sounds to me the trouble you are having, in part at least, is external to the tank. It appears there is a bad connection somewhere between that sensor and the gauge. There may be a problem with the sensor also but you will need to have voltage at the connection points. Try checking the resistance of the sensor leads to see if that is near the reading it should be. Isolate the leads to the sensor when you do that so you won't possibly get a false reading. Make sure there isn't a short across the leads or to ground.

You stated it is running like it is out of gas. I wonder if the accident caused things to get stirred up in the fuel system and part of the problem perhaps is due to a clogged fuel filter. Have you looked into that?

This link that Naru posted refers to one that would work I think. http://www.allspectrum.com/store/pro...b7eb4563092414

It would be interesting to see if this one would work. I think it would myself. If I still had my old car I would experiment with it to see if it would work. It would help a number of folks with this problem if it did work.