I am helping a friend with her 1993 Skylark GS. It has sat idle in her garage since 2006 when she last drove it and it overheated. It appears that the overheating was caused by a leaking radiator hose or a crack in the radiator near where the hose attaches. It also appears that what gas that was in the tank has evaporated over the years.

I installed a fresh battery and added about 10 gallons of fresh fuel to the tank. I also checked the fuel pump/injector fuse and it is good. However, the fuel pump does not seem to be coming on at all. When I turned the key, I do not hear the familiar sound of a fuel pump buzzing. I also disconnected the fuel intake line from the injector rail and no fuel is coming out when I crank the car.

Based on your collective knowledge, will I have to drop the tank and remove the pump in order to diagnose this issue?

 

The better way to do this is to verify that power and ground are available at the fuel pump plug/wires..
If they are, then you may need to drop the tank to check further.
Always a good place to start is with the fuses.
Depending on how severe the overheat condition was and for how long, you could be looking at possible burned valves and head surface problems.
If course the object is to get the engine started first and see how it runs.

 

I was not able to make an extensive study, but it appears that the tank has to be dropped in order to access the electrical connector to the fuel pump. Is this the case?

 

What we do is to make sure we have the wires going to the tank unit and probe them as close to the tank as possible.to verify we have or are getting what we should there..
Fuel pumps don't run continuously when we turn the key on. There are certain conditions that must be met for the pump to run . If you are not familiar with those requirements ,might be a good move to acquire that info before going any further and possibly wind up replacing good parts.

 

Just posting an update. I eventually removed the tank and replaced the fuel pump motor. The old one was siezed up and the filter screens were packed with varnish from the evaporated gasoline. The new motor came with new screens. The pump now comes on for two seconds when I turn the ignition key.