Renix...
My fuel pump has been going bad for a while and i finally got a new pump assembly and i had time to swap it today. ...well i got the old pump out and it matches up to the new one perfect but i am going on 2.5 hours of just trying to get the new one on. I have watched youtube, read haynes, read this forum, and it seems like they just go on no problem for most people but i can not get it to go on. Once again the new one looks identical to the old one but will not go on. Any tips? My dd is sitting in my garage dead right now. PLEASE HELP!

 

I don't know how similar the 88 is to a 96 but here's a video of when I replaced my fuel tank. In order to get the pump in, it took some twisting and turning. The part with the fuel pump starts about about four minutes in. Maybe it might help.

 

thanks for the reply but doesn't really help. every video does the same things. it skips over the part im having trouble with. The pump needs to slide into the retaining ring thing on the tank and it has the 2 parts that need to sit in the grooves and i can't get it to sit in the grooves. this is before the retaining clip goes on.

 

i have a 1993 i just put a new fuel pump in. the fuel pump has a rubber cushion (looks like an inverted cone) that has to sit in a cup. it took me a while to get it. i installed the fuel pump without dropping the tank. if you have a haynes manual there is a crappy picture of what i am talking about.

 

yeah i get it in there but the flange or whatever it is about 1/8 inch out of place. I have now tried 3 different pumps from 3 different manufactures and tried one rebuild kit to try to use my old pump assembly. All the new pumps fit the same way and the rebuild kit i got didn't fit my old assembly. I think the tank might have been bent somehow from the previous owner so now i am going to try to find a new tank and see if the new pumps fits in. The new assemblies line up perfect but are sitting out about 1/8" if i put all my muscle into it. I am surprised i didn't break the pump pushing that hard.

 

Use old o ring and apply light coat of oil on it.

 

so i got a new tank from carquest and the pump went in super easy in about 25 seconds. Something must have been jacked up with the old tank. It was a bummer to have to spend even more money but now i'm back on my way to having a car so ill have to just go with it.