so I recently bought a completely stock 1990 honda accord lx with a problem, it sat with some fuel in it (possibly 5 gallons or under) for over 3 years at least. it had 2 sticking valves that were carbon deposited partially open. I got the car in pieces: the head removed and fully disassembled, alternator off, ac compressor off, ps pump off, timing belt cut off, radiator removed, every vacuum line removed. Pretty much the only nice thing the guy did was he had the bolts in zip lock baggies and mostly labeled.

after getting the head and valves cleaned up and reassembled, getting all the vacuum lines/ heater hoses put back together, I tried to fire it up, it cranked but no fire. I checked fuel pressure, which there was none, googled for answers because I was afraid I have a bad fuel pump and disconnected the supply line at the fuel filter, turned key on, still nothing. due to google I found it might be a main relay and or I forgot a wire somewhere. checked for spark- no spark, thanks to google I realized I had forgot the ground wire to the thermostat housing. got spark back, no fuel pressure still.

my question is this, is there a wire I forgot to reconnect for the fuel pump possibly and on that little access panel in the trunk I have 2 wires going into the fuel tank and do not see any fuel lines near it, is that the fuel level sending unit or possibly the fuel pump? I can't hear anything when I turn the key to on

 

sound to me like the fuel pump....but one handy thing you can do is go buy one of the manuals for your year honda...it has the wiring diagrams in it...and you can trace your grounds from there.also you can try car-part.com and find a used pump from a ink yard for cheap and try that just to see if it help get the car running.

 

Agreed, check for 12V at pump. If it is there, THEN I would suspect fuel pump(Fuel will definitely varnish after all that time) But check for 12V first. If it is not there, then trace it back from pump, when you find 12V youve found the problem child.

 

I'm not sure I'd call myself a child lol, definitely a newb to Honda. I was really hoping for something simple before I drop the dang gas tank, the access port (which is accessible behind the rear seat back) looks like it only goes to the meter unit and the pump is about a foot away from that I believe with no access (rear seat has been pulled because I was hoping for another access panel (it still might "get" one)

 

well you can do like what my cousin did to my accord when he owned it...and cut a hole in the trunk over where the pump is...but your really better off just dropping the tank..it might not be the easiest thing to do but it is the best thing to do.

 

Problem child is an expression. Means you've found your issue.

 

sorry, getting more senile in my old age lol, I read it as "problem, child" not "problem child", got a 9 month old daughter, who wears me out thoroughly, I should have started about 20 years ago when I had energy lol

 

How sure are you that it isn't the main relay? Those go out all the time.

 

actualy I just got to the main relay, checking/soldering it tomorrow

 

I should be able to hot wire the fuel pump right? I pulled the pump and ran 2 leads from a battery- positive to the connection on the fuel pump and negative to the fuel pump ground. I got nothing, ohms at 5, just not even a whirr when I hot wired it

 

okay put some carb cleaner through the tb see it starts to know if it will start before you get ahead of yourself. if the head was unbolted and sat up that long the cylinder walls where prob ugly.

 

actually the cylinder walls looked pretty decent before cleaning and reconditioning, compression is pretty good across the board, and yes it does fire up with brake cleaner (didnt have carb cleaner on hand)

 

it's alive!!!!!! New To Me fuel pump and assembly as well as ntm fuel injectors, gotta time it now and add acc belts

it runs stops and shifts (5 speed), got a slight bit of a problem with the power steering (intermitent ps) and probably should do brakes fairly soon. now that it is running (idles high at first then eventually drops under 1k) I'm thinking about adding a cai for added gas mileage, rims (think I want to go 15", I'm not wanting to sacrifice ride comfort and am looking at very lightweight rims) and as crazy as I may sound I am thinking about doing a break upgrade for better stopping power even though I am not really looking into adding any real horsepower to it

 

Woohoo! Good work. And that idle speed sounds healthy. Mine used to start at about 1200 and drop down to about 800.