There is a redundant power supply to the fuel pump that runs through the oil pressure switch. That's there as a back-up to keep the pump (and engine) running in case the pump relay fails. Yes, the sensor/switch above the filter is the one, and you can hot-wire the fuel pump there, using a separate switch.

 

Well I have been playing with wiring the fuel pump to turn on and have come across some issues. I got the fuel pump to turn on but it will only pulse. I get a reading on my fuel pressure gauge, but it only jumps between 0-3 because the pump isn't staying on constantly. I thought maybe I got the wires backwards, so I flipped them and the pump stays on constantly, but there is no reading on my fuel pressure gauge. Does this mean that I have the fuel lines that are running through the regulator backwards? Or is something else wrong?

 

First lets determine which wire is which at the oil switch. Take a look and see if you don't have an orange and a gray one? The gray wire is the one that goes to the pump. I'll give the rest some thought for a minute or three.

 

You know, you never said what year your car is. My mind was later model. If you have an 89 or older, the wire to the pump would be light blue.

 

It's a 91, and I'm pretty sure that they positive wire to the fuel pump was grey

 

Alright I got the fuel pump working and have a steady 6 psi of fuel pressure. Gonna fire her up this week hopefully...

 

Alrighty then!

 

Well I got it started!! Broke in the cam and set the timing and tried to get it to idle but got it to do everything BUT idle... It wanted to either run at 1500 rpm or fall on its face. I couldn't find any happy medium anywhere there even spending like 5 minutes going back and forth with the curb idle speed screw on my holley. I haven't touched any other adjustments on the carb because it is supposed to be tested and calibrated to run out of the box. Someone told me to check for a vacuum leak somewhere but I was very precise with the instal of my intake and torque of those bolts, and used new gaskets everywhere. To me (and I'm no carb expert at all) it sounds like it's getting too much gas the way it would run really high until close to idle and then try to die, but I could be wrong. Any ideas? I have yet to hook a vacuum gauge up to it to check the amount of vacuum I'm making, but it probably isn't going to be on the high spectrum with the 230 cam

 

"Supposed to be calibrated and tested" is the key. I'm sure it was, but who knows how many drop-kicks the thing received when it got shipped? Not that that ever happens! I would still want to check the float level, as that could be one reason. Also, you're sure all unused vacuum ports on the carb are corked off, as well as no open vacuum hoses anywhere else? You could isolate the carb from any vacuum hookups and see if that makes a difference.

 

I'll take off my vacuum advance and brake assist and put caps back on those and see if that makes a difference. I checked the float levels and the main bowl was dead even with the bottom of the sight plug, the secondary was about in the middle of the sight plug. I don't know about messing with the idle mixture screws or not yet, I was going to see what you thought first