BII Fuel pump issues

[Sagebrush1976]

BII Fuel pump issues.....RESOLVED!!

I recently rescued a 86 BII from my wifes uncle (uncle in-law?). All it needed was a rear brake line replaced and he was going to send it to the scrap yard for $115!! It has a Jasper rebuilt engine/trans with about 40k on it. The body is solid and the interior is very nice for an 86. It ran great, other than the soft brake pedal. Ok...back to my problem. It has been setting for about 6 weeks while I worked on other projects. I went to start it up and test out my brake repair and it won't start. I figured that maybe it was out of gas so i put about 5 gallons in and tried it again. Nothing. I checked for spark and its getting good spark. I noticed that after cranking on it I still couldn't smell gas at all up by the intake. I poured a little bit of gas in to the throttlebody and it fires right up until the gas is gone. I swapped the underhood relay with a known good one and that didn't help. I checked the inertia switch and it wasn't tripped. Could the fuel pump have died just from setting? I know the tank was almost empty when I parked it. It was used as a "spare" vehicle for the past year so it sat a couple weeks at a time and always started up when needed. Is there a wiring harness plug anywhere near the tank that i could check to make sure that I am getting power to the pump? I was troubleshooting this by myself so I didn't have an extra hand to turn the key on while I listened for the pump to turn on.

 

[Carguy3J]

I recently rescued a 86 BII from my wifes uncle (uncle in-law?). All it needed was a rear brake line replaced and he was going to send it to the scrap yard for $115!! It has a Jasper rebuilt engine/trans with about 40k on it. The body is solid and the interior is very nice for an 86. It ran great, other than the soft brake pedal. Ok...back to my problem. It has been setting for about 6 weeks while I worked on other projects. I went to start it up and test out my brake repair and it won't start. I figured that maybe it was out of gas so i put about 5 gallons in and tried it again. Nothing. I checked for spark and its getting good spark. I noticed that after cranking on it I still couldn't smell gas at all up by the intake. I poured a little bit of gas in to the throttlebody and it fires right up until the gas is gone. I swapped the underhood relay with a known good one and that didn't help. I checked the inertia switch and it wasn't tripped. Could the fuel pump have died just from setting? I know the tank was almost empty when I parked it. It was used as a "spare" vehicle for the past year so it sat a couple weeks at a time and always started up when needed. Is there a wiring harness plug anywhere near the tank that i could check to make sure that I am getting power to the pump? I was troubleshooting this by myself so I didn't have an extra hand to turn the key on while I listened for the pump to turn on.

I used to have a BII years ago. Don't know that I can offer to much adive on this. However, I just wanted to point out, in case you didn't know, that the BII has 2 fuel pumps. (YEP, you read that right.) There is one in the tank, and another "booster" pump on the driver side frame rail. It should be roughly under the back edge of the door, if I remember right.
I actually had a similar problem, except I was driving mine daily, and it just wouldn't get fuel one day. I couldn't figure it out, and ended up putting in storage at the junkyard I was working at. They "accidently" sold all the glass out of it, and I ended up scrapping it without ever figuring it out. I was pissed. I loved that little thing, and it was very clean, ran great until it didn't....

 

[pdr51]

Fuiel filter

Have you replaced the inline filter on the frame by the driver side door? May be part of the problem.

 

[410Fortune]

BII has two fuel pumps yes, the in tank boost pump and the frame rail mounted high pressure pump

You need to find out if your fuel pumps are priming

Have a helper turn the key to ON (not to start)

You should hear BOTH fuel pumps come on for about 1 second

Get your head down under the drivers seat, the high pressure pump is mounted right on the fuel rail there

have the helper turn the key... fuel pump should have a nice healthy WHIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRR sound

now do the same thing back near the fuel tank, again... shoudl hear a nice WHIRRRRR noise or HUMMMMM if it sounds like gurgling or if you have no sound at all one pump may be out

just fyi sometimes the BII will RUN with no in tank boost pump, until you get low on gas or park on a hill... the in tank pump supplies the high pressure pump with fuel, it will still suck some gas but without the in tank pump running you will run into starting issues or power issues going up hill and the truck may quit if you run below 1/2 tank

I am on my 4th in tank pump and 3rd high pressure pump... 300K miles, 4 engines and 7 transmissions later LOL

here I had to replace my in tank pump again, instead of dropping the fuel tank I cut an access panel:

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=175668&page=8

 

[Sagebrush1976]

Got the BII running today! I popped the hood to put a battery in it so I could check the fuel pumps. I noticed the negative battery cable had a loose wire hanging from it. It's a smaller gauge wire...maybe 10 gauge..and had a plastic connector hanging from the end of it. I looked under the battery tray and saw what appeared to be the other end of it just hanging there. I plugged the 2 pieces together and put the battery in. Guess what!....the thing started up as soon as I hit the ignition! Apparently when we took the battery out, when I parked it the first time, this plug came unhooked. Looks like it runs over to the corner of the fender area where the relays are. Now everything works...gas gauge and all! WooHooo! Just to satisfy my curiosity, I then unplugged the wire to see what happens. Wouldn't start....no fuel pump, no gas gauge. So I'll chalk that up as another mystery solved!