WIRING HELP!!!! long post please read ASD relay clicks when fuel pump powers

[Juggy]

Ive been trying to trace a wiring problem in my 87 Shelby Charger.
car currently is 89 SMEC on stock L body bulkhead (S60 style), and the wiring harness is guaranteed to be working 100%.
when I went to power everything up, the key is turned forward only for the ASD relay to go into a mass clicking mode, and stops the fuel pump from priming and am unable to get a check engine light (or power loss cause its L body)
the problem lies within the vehicle, here is a cut n paste of a recent email to another TM member who has been very great in trying to help me locate the problem.

so the gremlin is somewhere inside the car, underneath the dash at the driver side kick panel is the connector for the fuel pump, there are 6 wires on this.....if someone could tell me what they are all for that would be great! I have it traced down to the blue wire that runs to the pump.....anywho here is whats happening....

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ok, theres 6 wires on that connector for the fuel pump, under the dash. Green/white strip, blue, and grey, run to the pump, while light green, black, and orange run elsewhere?



I was able to give the pump power by hookin up pwer at the plug, and it worked fine, one thing i noticed is that u dont need to ground anything to run the pump? maybe its grounded through the tank good enuff for it to work. I know green is power, and then I have grey and blue, I started removing pins at the connector, and when I unplugged the blue wire running to the pump, it was able to turn key forward and prime pump!!! what is this wire??? also the pump didnt seeem to prime as well, when turned forward, as opposed to straight up power from battery (you could hear the whiiirrrrrr alot more).



Sooooo im going to try to run a fresh wire from the connector to the back seat of the car (where the rubber plug is) and hopefully this solves my problem, if not ill run it directly to the connector underneath the car. if this still doesnt solve my issues, then what?!?! the problem lies b4 the connector, and into dash? it looks like these 6 wires run into the fuse box, speaking of which, what # fuse is for the fuel pump? as I cant seeem to find it, the name must have wore off or something.
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that about sums it up, anyone else run into BS like this???? i really hope running a fresh wire solves my issue, if not then im guessing the problem lies into the fuse box/dash wiring which would REALLY suck....

any/all input is greatly appreciated!

[minigts]

I'll input my 2 cents. The incessant clicking for me anyways, is normal. Mine does that if I don't start the car and have turned the key more than 2 times without starting the car. I wouldn't worry too much about that, as my car runs and starts. The ONLY issue I have when starting my car is it takes longer than it really should for it to fire up, but after I have had the car running this isn't the case. I didn't have that problem before I upgrade computers, so my thought is that it's something with the computer I put in.

The gray wire with the blue, I THINK is the tach. There is a gray with light blue (GY/LB) for the tach, but not sure if this is the same one.

To my knowledge, there isn't a fuse for the fuel pump in the fuse box. The only one I know of is a fuseable link and a relay, both of which are located in the engine bay on the left strut/fender area.

Is there a chance the pump is dead or dying? It may not sound like it's priming because it went out. I didn't notice you mentioning the condition of the pump up above. It is always possible, but I would think it's highly unlikely that you have an electrical issue between the firewall and the wires going to the pump that you can't see. Easiest way to test some continuity with the wires is to take an Ohm meter and loop a couple of wires and check to see if you get any signal. If you do, the wires are good.

[Juggy]

the connector im reffering too has no relation to the tach, 6 wires run back, 3 are to the pump, and I think the others might just be for the parking brake and seatbelts.

yes the pump was brand new, and not even primed from the person I got the car from. I dont think there is any fuel in the tank right now either, i have dry run the pump but extremely minimal.

I poked around with a test light 2day and a couple wierd things i found, hopefully its worded good enuff for people to understand what im talking about here lol


on the dash side, blue wire lights up the test light, for both power and ground (very weak signal), but on the other side of plug, it only lights up as ground wire.
on the connector that plugs into that that runs wires to fuel pump, the green (fuel pump power) is able to run with power hooked up, but apply the test light connected to positive, and it lights up, so the wire is grounded too? is it suppose to be like that.
getting nothing during key on for the light green wire on dash side.
orange and grey wires on dash side are good grounds

what is this blue wire for?? its scaring me that it makes a weak signal for power and ground

pump works and everything seems fine with that wire disconnected? altho it doesnt sound like the pump is running to full potential

[Juggy]

I'll input my 2 cents. The incessant clicking for me anyways, is normal. Mine does that if I don't start the car and have turned the key more than 2 times without starting the car.

do u mean it clicks once, or it keeps clicking? my relay will click and click and click until the cows come home, and I live in the city!! you can even hear the fuel pump doing some funky crap too, like its tryin to power on but it keeps st st studdering with that relay goin off in a clicky frenzy

[minigts]

Mine will click intermittently, not "steady" but it will just keep doing it.

MOST wires will either have 12volts or not. There shouldn't be any wires that have less than 12v unless they are being regulated somewhere. I'm pretty sure the wires you have going to the pump that have voltage are not regulated. I don't have my books in front of me though.

[Tony Hanna]

Could it possibly be a bad ECU ground? I think it's the one at the fuel rail that if not grounded properly will cause the relays to go crazy.

[Juggy]

Could it possibly be a bad ECU ground? I think it's the one at the fuel rail that if not grounded properly will cause the relays to go crazy.

u know what, I havent added the ground for the intake, to firewall...but the injector harness is grounded to the intake. Ive run like this b4 without problems, Ill have to add the ground and see what happens afterwards.

what I really need is for someone to tell me what that blue wire is, running to the fuel pump!!! I only have an 89 diagnostic manual here

[Tony Hanna]

What gets me is why it's got 6 wires running back to the fuel pump. I could see 4... 1 hot and 1 ground for the sending unit, and 1 hot and 1 ground for the pump, but those extra 2 are a mystery to me. Unless the other 2 might be for an external pump... Didn't some of the l-bodys get 2 pumps? Maybe the wiring is there even if the pump isn't.
I looked for a wiring diagram to see if I could figure out which wire is which, but I couldn't find anything except the standard green/black to + side of the pump and grey to the - side.

[BadAssPerformance]

do u mean it clicks once, or it keeps clicking? my relay will click and click and click until the cows come home, and I live in the city!! you can even hear the fuel pump doing some funky crap too, like its tryin to power on but it keeps st st studdering with that relay goin off in a clicky frenzy

Does it do this all the time? Do you have another TM that you could do a test to see if it sounds the same?

Why I ask... this sounds exactly like what happens when you prime a fuel pump w/o the injector harness connected. I've actually unplugged the injector harness on parts cars and used the fuel pump to pump the tank out by connecting a spare hose to the supply line that is supposed to go to the rail. With the injector harness connected correctly the pump will prime for a couple seconds and then stop. With the harness disconnected the pump will continue to pump until teh battery dies or the pump burns out.

If it is doing this, then maybe the injector harness is not connected or grounded sufficiently? just a crazy thought...

[supercrackerbox]

I've run into this problem three times. Twice, the ground was loose on the injector harness (two black wires with an eyelet, it bolts to one of the fuel rail bolts), and the third time the computer was bad.

[butchsuppe]

Sounds like a bad grd to me, I totally reworked my SMEC wiring and ran ALL the goods straight to the batt. The sensor grd is on the same circuit as the logic board grd plus the power board has a couple grds. I also ran an extra wire to the fuel pump. The coil, injector, O2 + sensors all have new wires. I eliminated about 20 ft of wire going to that silly fuel rail grd. I have 2 10 ga grd cables to the eng. and a couple grd wires to the body. My only mistake was using a cheap aftermarket fuel box in series with the ASD which recently caused me problems. Needless to say it got pitched.

[moparman76_69]

To my knowledge, there isn't a fuse for the fuel pump in the fuse box. The only one I know of is a fuseable link and a relay, both of which are located in the engine bay on the left strut/fender area.

If I'm not mistaken its fuse number 10 in the fuse block its a 20A. I was just messing with the fuel pump wiring on the 85 T1 car I have and it had a short somewhere between the fuse block and the pump, the area on the fuse block around that fuse was black where it had melted the plastic

[Juggy]

Why I ask... this sounds exactly like what happens when you prime a fuel pump w/o the injector harness connected. I've actually unplugged the injector harness on parts cars and used the fuel pump to pump the tank out by connecting a spare hose to the supply line that is supposed to go to the rail. With the injector harness connected correctly the pump will prime for a couple seconds and then stop. With the harness disconnected the pump will continue to pump until teh battery dies or the pump burns out.

If it is doing this, then maybe the injector harness is not connected or grounded sufficiently? just a crazy thought...

JT.....I think you hit the hammer on the nail....ive been keying the ignition WITHOUT having the injector harness connected....Ill hook that back up and add the ground 2day, and report back

[Tau]

I had a similar issue with one of my 89's (SMEC) turned out to the be chip in the ECU was cooked, swapped in another ECU and away i went

[BadAssPerformance]

JT.....I think you hit the hammer on the nail....ive been keying the ignition WITHOUT having the injector harness connected....Ill hook that back up and add the ground 2day, and report back

Good luck man!

[Juggy]

I plugged in the injector harness, and the problem was solved.....lmfao....wow, I cant believe how stupid I feel!!!!!!

My previous car had a hacked up wiring harness, and the ground for the injector haress, was spliced in seperately, so even when I had the inj harness unplugged on the old car, it was still grounded. This car was also 87 TII wiring, which most of the vehicles, Ive owned, were running...so this SMEC stuff is still new to me

so looks like the car will be running 2day!!! And hopefully get some timeslips this weekend More pics and details about the car soon....for any of yous who have been following my progress.

[Big_P]

JT.....I think you hit the hammer on the nail....ive been keying the ignition WITHOUT having the injector harness connected....Ill hook that back up and add the ground 2day, and report back

+1, try that, I had the same problem, turned out to be the injector harness ground.

[BadAssPerformance]

I plugged in the injector harness, and the problem was solved.....lmfao....wow, I cant believe how stupid I feel!!!!!!

My previous car had a hacked up wiring harness, and the ground for the injector haress, was spliced in seperately, so even when I had the inj harness unplugged on the old car, it was still grounded. This car was also 87 TII wiring, which most of the vehicles, Ive owned, were running...so this SMEC stuff is still new to me

so looks like the car will be running 2day!!! And hopefully get some timeslips this weekend More pics and details about the car soon....for any of yous who have been following my progress.

Sweet, glad you got it fixed