delquattro

I'm trying to remain cautious - I've had several false positives on this one.

First, I changed the fuel pump (the old one sounded really bad.) That worked great for about 100 miles. Then, I tried Morgan's suggestion (cleaned the coil contacts) and that got me home, but the bucking later resurfaced.

I quit driving the car for a week, frustrated, not knowing where else to look. Electrical or fuel, etc?

Well, I woke up the other morning with an epiphany. Its the new fuel pump relay that I put in in August!

So, today, when the car started bucking, I pulled over and stuck in the old relay to see what would happen. She drove great for several miles and then started bucking again.

Meanwhile, I held the newer relay out the window to cool it down as I drove down the road. Sure enough, when the car started bucking again, I put in the cooled down newer relay and the girl ran great. So, I guess when the car gets warmed up the relay gets hot and starts acting erratic.

I'm curious to know what symptoms some of you have experienced when your relay went? Who should I buy a new relay from? The old one is from NAPA, If I remember correctly...I didn't want to wait.

budpalumbo

open the relay and look for a cracked solder joint

PackRat

How about making a jumper to replace the relay and just trying that next time it starts bucking at least that will eliminate the off chance that both relays are bad, as well it should tell you wether the problem is on the load side or the control side of the relay.
Just a thought...
Packrat

delquattro

I have opened both of them up. Inside, they're different. The older one causes the car to buck after less time than the newer one. Today I ran the newer one without the plastic cover and the bucking was less pronounced, but still there. Again, it would disappear when I changed relays.

I didn't notice any cracked solder points. I think its a failure in the little coil that activates the points.

Time to order a new relay.