Keeps blowing fuses

[Dwayne W.]

My 97 Explorer keeps blowing the fuses for the fuel system. Just replaced fuel pump. Don't know what's next?

 

[koda2000]

I know t's not much help, but if the fuse keeps blowing you have a dead short to ground somewhere. It could be anywhere in the fuel pump circuit. This will be very difficult to find. If it were me I'd try running a new wire from the fuel pump's inertia switch to the fuel pump's power wire and see if that stops the fuse from blowing. If the fuse still blows, run a new wire from the fuel pump relay to the inertia switch and see what happens.

Trying to find the offending wire and the bare spot that's shorting out will be extremely time consuming. It's one of those jobs that will cost pennies to repair, but will include hours worth of diagnostic time.

 

[Dwayne W.]

Thanks. I'll try it. Let you know how it works out.

 

[J_C]

Does it blow the fuse (almost if not) immediately, or is this an intermittent problem that happens unpredictably?

You could unplug the fuel inertia switch and measure resistance between the wire to the pump and ground. If lower than what should be caused by the pump motor itself (I don't know the exact reading there but should be a few ohms not just a couple or less) then you could unplug the fuel pump, take the same reading again, and if not low ohms, measure where that wire goes to the pump connector and ground on the connector to see if the pump itself is pulling too much current (defective from factory).

Similarly if the wire towards the pump reads good you can measure resistance between the wire to the inertia switch and ground.