Well after I wrote my other post about the inertia switch I became curious today and pulled the plug off of the bottom of the switch. I found a melted connector. This tells me that the fuel pump must be drawing to many amps. So now I need a new switch, fuel pump, connector, and relay I guess. Anyone care to jump in and help me with this one? Thanks, Kory

2003 27,000 miles

 

I am starting to piece things together here. I bought the truck a little while back and twice it has taken extra cranking to start. Also one time it tried to cut out on me and I thought it was because I was new to driving stick and shifted to early going into third. Now I need to figure out if it is actually a fuel pump problem or hopefully just a relay melting the conector. Thanks, Kory

 

If your fuel pump was drawing that much amperage to melt the connector i'm guessing it would have fried the windings in the motor of the pump first. If you have a melted connector i would actually blame the intertia switch or the connection the connector was making with the switch. If there was a weak connection or some corrosion on the terminal blades it would create resistance and generate heat hence melting the connector. Also if it was the fuel pump it should have fried the fuse. I dont think the fuel pump power actually runs through the inertia switch. I think when you turn on the ignition the power goes to the inertia switch, then to the relay, turning the fuel pump on (correct me if i'm wrong) but i would think that would be how it worked. I dont know why they would run the fuel pump directly through the inertia switch. Unless it was to power the magnetic field to keep the little ball in place that makes the inertia switch work. But who knows? I think you have a connection problem and it was creating too much resistance and causing problems. Had it happen on a starter solenoid for my F150. Pos. battery terminal went to the relay, but was a little corroded, and when you turned the key the starter tried to pull too much power through the connection and it fried the solenoid. So now that i think of it your pump might actually be wired through the inertia switch. But look at the contacts on the connection and see how they look.

 

The only connector that I looked at was the one to the inertia switch and the plastic was melted going into the inertia switch. I just figured that the only way the plastic would melt would be from heat from to much resistance to something. I am not sure if this would have anything to do with the delayed start I had a few times. I think when I crawl under the truck I hear the fuel pump ticking some so I hope thats not the problem. Thanks, Kory