Fuel relay switch?

[SWright]

My explorer quit the other day while running fine and I had no idea why. I just did some research and found it was the fuel relay switch under the glove box that needed to be reset. I pushed it back in and it runs fine now. But my question is what causes that? Why did the switch flip while just driving down the road? Any ideas?

Thanks for the input!!

Shelton

 

[DeRocha]

The fuel pump inertia switch is located under the glove box behind the carpet as pictured below. The inertia switch acts like a circuit breaker for the fuel pump. In the event of an accident/large jolt the switch will trip and kill power the fuel pump. Maybe a passenger kicked it hard earlier and just driving down the road was enough to trip it (just a thought).

Click on pic for full size

 

[fixxxer]

Or, a really big bump?