Fuel Pump Terminal Corrosion

["tmpintnl" <tobyp@xxxx>]

Hello List - I haven't seen this topic on the List yet, so I thought I 
would toss this in for general information. Last night, I worked on a 
DeLorean for several hours that was suffering from an "apparent hot 
start" problem. The owner, who had just recently purchased the car, 
went to a gas station for a fillup, and the car would not start 
afterwards. We swapped the CPR and cold start connectors, and the car 
started instantly, and idled with a slight "hunt". We turned it off, 
and put the connectors back to their normal positions. The car would 
not even think of starting after that. We confirmed a spark at the 
spark plug high-tension leads. We confirmed a fuel delivery problem 
by using starting fluid. The engine would catch, and then immediately 
die. We looked at all applicable fuses and relays, and found a melted 
fuse for the brake lights (!???) and a hot fuse for the electric 
mirrors (!???). These were not involved in the immediate problem, but 
are still curious. In any event, we sought to confirm power to the 
fuel pump by opening the access to the pump in the spare tire well. 
Bottom line - water had gotten into the area above the pump, and 
corroded the electrical terminals completely off of the pump. The 
boot and cover installation looked perfect, but apparently wasn't. 
The car rode home on a flat bed truck. The moral of the story is to 
arrange for an inspection of this area before you are left stranded. 
This is the fourth car that I know of personally that had this exact 
same problem. (Yes ... mine was one of them, 2 years ago)

Toby Peterson VIN 2248
Winged1