[dustris]

1992 Astro, 188,000 miles. It's been running really rough lately when sitting idling.

Then today it just WOULDN'T START. It turns over, but won't crank. I can smell fuel, so I think I'm getting fuel.

I took the doghouse off (what a PAIN IN THE ...!!), and it has a "Delco-Remy" distributor cap and Rotor button. Would these be ORIGINAL, as they haven't made parts under the Delco-Remy name in a few years, HAVE THEY?!?

At any rate, the points in the distrbutor were NASTY, covered in metal corrosion, as was the tip of the metal piece on the Rotor Button. Rather than clean these up, They're only about $15.00 TOTAL from the local auto parts store, so I'm headed there to get new ones.

My question is... If this doesn't fix it, does anyone else have ANY OTHER suggestions?

THANKS!
Dusty

 

[dustris]

OK, I have solved my own problem. After replacing the Fuel pump relay, the Distributor Cap and Rotor Button....(which ALL needed to be replaced anyhow!)

It turned out NOT to be any of those.

I realized by crawling under the car and listening for the fuel pump to engage while a buddy cycled the key on and off that I had NO FUEL PUMP.

SOOOO, I called a wise, old mechanic friend of mine who advised me to try the following:

Crawl under the vehicle and BEAT on the fuel tank with the palm of your hand (or maybe a wooden two-by-four) while someone cycles the Ignition key on and off.

THIS WORKED!

The explanation was that sometimes a piece of trash can become lodged between the contacts on the fuel pump, causing it not to "make contact" and that this method can sometime dislodge the trash (or whatever). this is fairly common with S-10's and Blazers, too, he told me.

Needless to say, it saved me some $$$!!!

 

[kidhauler]

I am glad you found the bad pump but as a rule of thumb pounding on the tank usually only gives you a few starts at best. Usually only one start. I would get a new pump really really soon. I have gotten numerous cars started doing this as I used to work at the testing centre here and we delt with hundereds of cars aday so we had many cook the pump in the station. My parting words to all of these people were always the same. "If it starts do not shut if off for any reason untill you have it somewhere it can be fixed or parked for a long time as it probably will not start again even if you hit the tank again Good Luck"

I had a few people come back and say that I was right as soon as they shut it off it died and wouldn't re start.

Good Luck

Kevin