Hi all,

Trying to figure out why my 93 XJ refuses to start. The fuel pump is not priming; I replaced the pump with a new one and still no go. The internet tells me that somewhere in the circuit is a fusible link. Does anyone know where this damn thing actually is? I can't seem to find the answer anywhere.

 

One thing you can try real fast (literally takes a minute....) is unplug and jump the two wires going the fuel pump ballast resistor under the hood. It's a chalky white looking brick on the driver side fender, probably up around the brake master with two wires going to it. Simply unplug and jump them with a wire, then see if the pump comes on. If yes, resistor is bad, I believe.

 

I don't know about a fusible link, I've never heard of a problem with one in the '93.

You probably already know this but there is a fuel pump relay in the PDC and at least 2 fuses that have to do with the pump: #2 30a green, #6 60a blue.

If you haven't already done so, swap out the relay with one of the others such as A/C or e-fan and try it.

Assume it is cranking but not starting and that you have a good spark while cranking?

 

TwoXJS has a good point about bypassing the ballast resistor although the resistor is not supposed to be in the circuit at start-up. It is switched into the pump circuit after start to presumably quiet the pump. It is unnecessary and was done away with in later models. If this should turn out to be your problem, it can be permanently bypassed.

I don't know what brand of pump you got but Airtex pumps sem to have a high early failure rate, although I'm not sure that I've heard of failure right out of the box.

 

He did say the pump isn't priming at all. I didn't realize the resistor wasn't in play while starting, either. Sorry! Didn't think of fuses or relays either....Shows how scatter-brained I am!

 

thanks for the ideas everybody! I snugged up the connections to the ballast resistor after finding that it had ~0 ohms resistance through it. Swapped relays around and finally heard it prime, even though I could swear to you I checked that at the beginning of this project. Nevertheless, she magically started up for me. Here's the hoping it stays that way!

 

Glad you got it going!

I will post tomorrow (I'm tired and my desk lamp bulb just burned out) with some additional info about what I went through with my '93 about 5 years ago. Hopefully you won't need it but it can't hurt.