Waiting to cross an intersection on my way home from work, it died, would not start, would turn over, but not start. My wife came with her buick and pushed me home with her car (I live 1 mile from work, mostly downhill on the way home). found that my fuel pump fuse was shot, replaced it and that one blew. pulled the rear seat and started chasing wires to find all where good, no shorts. So I checked the wires on top of the fuel sending unit and the ground was barely holding on, so i re mounted it and that didn't work. with a new fuse, it puts enough pressure in the line to get it running for about 5 sec before it blows again. I did some reading and I think my terminals on the sending unit are shorting out. What do you think my chances of repairing the unit are? I don't have the $ to replace at this point and the only one I can find is on ebay (very used) for $115 with shipping.

I am a strong believer in Murphy's law, and Murphy can kiss my A$$!

Thanks,
Adam

 

could be the fuel pump itself. a few weeks ago, i was driving one of the bosses trucks to see someone and it just suddenly started lagging and died, rolled it to a sidestreet and it would turn over and then i got it to start for a few seconds and it died again. and i left my phone on my toolbox had to run all the way back to get another truck to tow it, fuel pump went

do you know how old your fuel pump is?

 

hmmm i just had this same exact thing happon to me a couple months ago...but in my case the battery was drained all the way down and then replaced with a new battery, during that time some how my fusable link coming off of my posative terminal was fried...my brother tried cranking the motor over for atleast 15 minutes untill i arrived and checked fuses.. the only 1 blown was the fuel pump fuse. i replaced it and it still blew. i then removed the 10 amp fuse and put in a 15 amp and it didnt short out so i drove it home to find the wire burnt on my fuse link... check it out im not sayign thats what it is but in my case that same thing happoned during my ordeal..

 

When this same issue happened to me I tore the entire wiring system apart thinking it was something else. I used new ground wire to the sending unit cap but it would pop the fuse. The white plastic insulation that covers all the connections on the top of the sending unit cap have to be in good conditon or you'll have problems; atleast in my case. I have a digi dash and you know how hard it is to find a good used SU. I was fortunate to get blessed by a member of this forum that had a digi dash sending unit that was in good shape. From what you stated in your post your symptoms were real close to mine. As you stated a new fuse would pop after a couple of seconds. So I tried a higher amp fuse and like I thought... it worked but after a few minutes the fuse will get real hot. I pulled that fuse out and was satisfied proving a theory to myself. I knew at that point the ground would never hold and I had to replace the sending unit as a whole. I actually bought another fuel pump the first time I had an issue with the FP fuse popping and the fuse held for about 6 months before the fuse started popping again. So I automatically though defective aftermarket FP. So I ordered another FP(255lph), I was planning on getting a higher lph pump anyway so this was the perfect excuse to copp the 255lph FP. The sending unit and FP work good together as a whole.

 

You can install a VE pump on a VG afaik, at least on a 1994 VG. They're around $90 new.

 

Well, its fixed, kinda...
If you have ever looked at the top of the fuel sending unit, there are the 4 posts that go through and are supposed to have a plastic cover on each one to hold it in place, well 2 of mine where corroded and had no plastic on them. i pulled the sending unit and cleaned off the corrosion and allot of the rust with a wire brush. the 2 points that where all corroded where able to move freely, so one of them was grounding and shorting out and making the fuse go "POP." i de-soldered the wires on those points and and pushed the points through. the holes where they where, i drilled out a little larger and i took some atv (small engine) fuel line and forced it all the way down the point to insulate it from grounding and then pushed each point back through. They fit snug and didnt move much. Then to keep each point from wanting to fall back through i put a zip tie at the base of each on the outside. They are secure! re-soldered the wires and she fired right up! no more poped fuse!!!!!!!

 

Glad to here and if I ever have this issue I know where to look now.