Greetings Chuck, No, I won't drive it with the jumper, I just want to make sure that it was the fuel pump relay because the part was a little bit expensive and I just replace this last year. If its the relay, do you have any idea what is causing this to break or its just a manufacturers defect and luck on my side . Chuck, you mentioned that jumping 7 and 8 is not a good idea to drive it this way and just for emergency. Can you please tell me what can go wrong if I do this (just curious but won't do it). Thanks again and Regards.

There are three issues, none of them technical, with driving the car with the relay jumpered.

- you may forget you did it and walk away leaving it running and end up with a dead battery

- your jumper might keep the pump running if the car were in an accident, a fire hazard

- your jumper might fall out an an inopportune time and kill the engine

The relays just seem to fail randomly. The only cause I can think of is excessive current draw by the pump. Alldata says it should be "approximately 7.5 amps." So you might check that.

You would do that with a meter on "amp" function, in line between the + side of the pump and the power wire.

__________________
Chuck Taylor
Falls Church VA
'66 200, '66 230SL, '96 SL500. Sold: '81 380SL, '86 300E, '72 250C, '95 C220, 3 '84 280SL's '90 420SEL, '72 280SE, '73 280C, '78 280SE, '70 280SL, '77 450SL, '85 380SL, '87 560SL, '85 380SL, '72 350SL, '96 S500 Coupe

Greetings Chuck, I did not work on my car today, I'm from Northern California and as you know we are having a big storm here since yesterday and it was bad. I will get back to you if I completed the test that you have suggested. I really appreciate all your help in solving the mystery in the car that I love. Regards and Thank you Chuck

Greetings Chuck, jumped relay socket 7 and 8 and the car runs. Confirmed it was the FUEL PUMP RELAY. Ordered the relay yesterday and will be in tomorrow. I cannot do this with out your help and just want you to know how grateful I am for helping me. Regards and Thank You very much.

Greetings Chuck, Replaced FUEL PUMP RELAY today and the car runs like a champ. Thanks and Regards.

I have a 1981 380 sl that will not start.The fuel pump is not working. It is about 2 years old. I removed the relay. It is a 6 pin. I jumpered pins 1 & 2. Now I have no power at all to anything. What did I do wrong?

jumping in here..you likely removed the wrong relay or disurbed the main power supply relay which is the OVP relay on my car..Not familar with your car..Good luck..

?!

Unclear what relay you removed and what connections you jumped. You may have blown a fuse or even fried a wire. But if this happened, though, there would have been a spark or some smoke.

To make sure you have the right relay, look for a large red-white-black wire connecting to the socket where the pin marked 87 would go. To be sure you are jumping the correct pins, look at the relay and jump the sockets where the pins marked 30 and 87 go.

__________________
Chuck Taylor
Falls Church VA
'66 200, '66 230SL, '96 SL500. Sold: '81 380SL, '86 300E, '72 250C, '95 C220, 3 '84 280SL's '90 420SEL, '72 280SE, '73 280C, '78 280SE, '70 280SL, '77 450SL, '85 380SL, '87 560SL, '85 380SL, '72 350SL, '96 S500 Coupe

The relay is a 6 pin relay with 31, 15, 87 on one row and 50, TD and 30 on the other row of pins. I jump 1 and 2 on the socket and every thing is completely dead now.