Now that I have my fuel tank out and the fuel pump assenbly removed how do I make sur the pump works/don't work before I plunk down $300 for a new one .Thanx

were you having problems before dropping the tank?

What vehicle?

Do you have a pressure gauge to read the pressure on the fuel rail?

I assume your fuel pump is electric and inside the tank. Some vehicles with electric fuel pumps have a special oil pressure sending unit (Vega for instance) that, if bad, will not allow the electric fuel pump to work. Check you oil pressure sending unit if it has two wires on it. I have used the Vega sending units on my oval track Fords, dragster and even my street rod simply because of the feature that will shut down the fuel pump if oil pressure drops. Also, cars with electronic fuel injection have a safety shut off switch (in case of an accident) I have seen these triggered and will not allow the fuel pump to work. Need to know...year, make, model!

THANX for the responses. It is a '97 Dakota. Electric fuel pump in the tank. Would not start. Has spark because squirting start fluid in intake will run 'till that burns off. Opened fuel line at coupling on frame and cranked. No fuel came out. Tested wires going to tank and found hot wire on only one wire measured to ground, and only when cranking. This may not be the correct way to test? Did not get any response from earlier thread so went ahead and removed tant and pulled pump assembly. With pump assembly out ,I put 12 volts to plug connectors and it ran fine.
Now I assume something must have to tell the pump to turn on. I assume there should be voltage present whenever the key is in the run position.
Am I correct?Where should I look ?
Thanx again.

There is a fuel pump relay under the hood, in the Power Distrubition Center on the left wheel well. The fuse for it is there as well, it is fuse #1-20a

I am not sure about your truck, but I had a Chevy Tahoe do that and it was a bad ignition key. Seems the key had a memory chip in it for security and the chip lost its memory. Had to make the chip relearn. It was easy to do. Turn the ignition on and just wait 10 minutes and it started right back up.

Turns out it was the fuel assembly. The pump in it still made noise and pumped a little when in a bucket and no lines attached, but not when hooked up. Must have been worn out impeller or what ever is used to pump. I put in a new one and put it back together and runs OK. Only thing I need to do is get the new rubber line I put on the outlet over the ridge as the clamp will not hold. I found out the hard way, on the road. Fortunatly in front of my brothers in law house. The line popped off. I put it back on and will need to do a more permanent fix at home.
Also need to R&R the filler neck as moving it around has caused a drip when filling and I will only put in a 1/2 tankful for now.
Does anyone know the pressure that is develeped by the pump? I thought I had that clamp on as tight as I could with a 1/4" nut driver.
THANKYOU to all for the great help.
Now I can get back to working on my '31 .

Fuel pressure should be 49 psi +/- 5 psi at idle, this is at the fuel rail. If it is above 54 psi the regulator is bad.