legacycentral bbs

Yeah, I'm glad I finally found it. About time. I guess I should have checked for pump operation earlier, but the symptoms just didn't seem to point to that. A bad pump power source makes a lot more sense now.

I'll do what you said and see what happens. I think the wire was hot on both sides of the connector and the connector was burnt, so would that indicate that the connector itself is no longer able handle the load and the heat is disapating through the wire? I guess that would be easy enough to determine. Since it seems to be a negative wire, I could just make a new ground for it and be done with it, right? Running a new line and a relay would be easy enough though. Just pick something up at Radio Schwag?

Thanks

Yeah, it does sound like the connector itself is the culprit... if there were an internal break in the wire you'd expect it to be hot mainly in that area.

Have you let it cool down and then felt it as you powered it up to make sure it's not getting hot in one spot and then conducting the heat to the other side?

If it is just a ground wire, then, yes, you should be fine just putting a new ground strap in. Is it the black wire?

Morgie posted a picture of his connector replacement in this thread:

http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=1216

Yeah, that's the thread I saw yesterday. That's exactly what mine looks like. I'll likely do the same thing he did. I haven't had a chance to mess with it since my last post. I think the bad wire is black. At least on one side of the plug. The wires on each side don't exactly match. I'll let you know what I find.

Thanks

Yeah, the wires change color as they cross through the connector but I think the ground wire is black on both sides.

OK, I think I'm finally done. The suspect wire was the black/red one on the ecm side of the plug and green/yellow on the pump side. It was ground until the car started, then 12v. It was actually around 13.57 on the ecm side and 13.42 on the other, so it was losing voltage at the plug. The plug is also where the heat was generating and the ecm line seemed to heat up a little more than the other side. Makes sense. I replaced the connectors on that wire with some extras I had laying around. Started the car and let it run for 15 minutes or so while I put some other things away and cleaned up my mess. The line did not warm up with the new connector so it seems to be fixed. For good measure, I taped up the connectors before I put it all back together. The car seems to run fine now. That was fun. Can't wait to do that again! Woohoo!

Many thanks to everyone for their help on this problem.

Dave

Are you sure it wasn't blue/yellow on the pump side?

If it was, that is the positive side of the pump's power supply. When the car is off, the fuel pump relay is inactive, and so your voltmeter was grounding through the fuel pump's motor to measure 0 volts at the wire.

Congratulations on the successful repair. I bet it feels good.

Yeah, that was the wire and that makes sense.

Thanks, yeah, it does feel good. Took it out for the first long test drive and someone in a big old Ford LTD that was passing me from the other way managed to somehow chuck a rock at my car so hard that it dented the hood, left a couple nasty scratches there, then hit the windshield, scratched that and the upper left window frame. Susprised it didn't crack the glass. Figures. Can never have one good day. At least it wasn't the '05 test driver. Oh well. After a little pounding from under the hood and some touch-up paint, it fits in nicely with the rest of the battle scars.

Thanks,

Dave

You just can't win...

...not anymore. It was bad karma from beating up that '05 Legacy Turbo.

If that's the case, was it worth it?

Heh. Yes.

Dave