Hello all,

Just thought I'd let you guys know what I think was the problem with my '86 hatch....

Problem #1:

Acting like a vapour lock and starving for fuel.

 

Actions: Replaced all rubber hoses, filters, blew out lines, replaced pump with after market unit,etc.

 

FIX? Well it turns out the fuel return line was blocked at the tank.

 

This was causing the pressure in the supply line to reach a point where the fuel pump couldn't pump anymore fuel. I tried blowing it out, running a wire down it to clean it, but no go....

I rerouted the fuel return line to one of the vapour return nipples (hehehe....I said ... nipples on the tank. Not exactly the fix I wanted but at least fuel is returning to the tank. I also ended up installing a new fuel pump, so even if it wasn't the pump, at least I have a new one ($39.99 @ Kragen). I by-passed the vapour seperator as well (wasn't being used)

 

Problem #2:

No heater blower.

 

Actions:

Check switch, power, fuses, etc.

 

Fix:

Pulled blower and hotwired it to battery, no prob, runs great. Reinstalled blower, started chasing wires and looking at wiring schematics....my Chilton's doesn't have the diagram for my car, but the ones it does have gave me a place to start... Turns out that it looks like the car is missing a relay. Found the plug the relay is supposed to plug into, cut, strip, tap into back of fuse block (fused side of course) and wah lah.....the heater works on all settings!.... sort of... I get hot air, but not as hot as I think it should be... I suspect the core is either plugged, or that I'm not getting a good flow of water through it. Still working on this, but at least I could defrost the windshield if I had to...

 

Jibs, you might want to consider problem #1....almost the exact same symptoms your brat had at the moon rocks eh?

 

At any rate, I put about 150 miles on the car this weekend, so I'm going to be driving it to work this week. If it runs ok, I guess the hatch becomes mine and not my sons.... oh well.. his loss!

Hope everyone had a good holiday.

NV

I just recently had to fix the return line on my SW for the same reason. The pump would sometimes bind and not restart at the most inconvenient times. Good luck on yours.

Yeah thanks BigBlue. I'm gonna try that next, check the hoses at the tank. Then I'll replace hoses/hardlines and see if that helps. Glad to hear that the hatch is running again, we'd love to see that thing wheelin next time out there. Thanks again for the info and ideas I'll try it.