thanks Subford, fuel pump no run was a ground issue
 

Long story a little shorter; 88 F250 with a 460 died while running about 6 months ago. first forum that comes up under "no power to fuel pump" is one from Kethan about 10 years ago. followed that and many other procedures to winnow down the possibilities; relays okay, have spark, runs with ether, have good fuel pressure at the rail, pump runs when shorted to ground at the test connector, really looked like it was the ecu. but indeed kethan did all the same things, including replacing his ecu finally and that didn't fix it, at which point he dropped off his own thread as far as i could tell--never found out what happened. after doing all my own tests again and again, i decided to try a junkyard ecu, didn't help, finally got a rebuild cardone from autozone for under a hundred bucks, figured i'd finally face the music. STILL didn't start. upon reflection, i went back to something Subford mentioned in one or more threads about "check the negative cable where it splits off a couple wires into the harness". i had looked at these, they had a 2 plug connector that looked okay, made sure it wasn't plugged in backwards. but i had never checked continuity through the connector. sure enough, when i stabbed a needle into the wires one of them was broken--indeed i sanded the side of the plastic off with an angle grinder to reveal a brass connector broken inside, invisible to the nekkid eye. something that will happen after bouncing around dirt roads long enough. cut the connector out, recrimped it with butt connectors and the mofo beast fired right up. leads me to wonder how many of these old trucks are sitting in junkyards for that simple reason- i was getting ready to have mine towed. so thanks for the voice of experience, Subford, i've used a number of your postings to track down weird problems over the years.

Yeah no kidding... when I'm at the yard I sometimes wonder what the stories are with some of the vehicles. Some of them are in great shape aside from probably just needing a motor or trans. I look at junked trucks and think, one day this was sitting on the showroom floor and someone decided they liked and wanted it. Years later now look where it is.

Glad you got it figured out.

Glade to be of help.
A poor ground at the Neg battery post for the computer ground wire seems to be a common problem with the trucks & vans of the late 80's. They then later moved it to the radiator support and then to the fender at a body ground point near the battery.