I've had fuel pump problems for about a month now, and I finally figured things out. It started (or failed to start actually) when I was coming home from a 300 mile trip and I was halfway, stopped getting some gas. Came out to the car and went to fire it up and it wouldn't start. I noticed the fuel pump was not coming on when I turned the key, so I checked the inertia switch and that wasn't it. I waited 20 minutes and it still wouldn't fire up. Finally after an hour and a half it started.
I made it home and the next day it fired up fine, but if I drove the car for a long distance or in the heat it wouldn't start. So I replaced the relay(it only cost $9 at Murray's) and that didn't solve the problem. The car never died on me once it was running, but only had problems starting. Well it died for good the other day and yesterday I put on a new holley 190lph pump and that did the trick. Ran some juice through the old pump(which was replaced 2 years ago) and she was dead and finally sputtered on after a couple tries.
The reason I new it was the pump and not the relay is I looked in my Chilton's manual and found the wiring schematic(sp?) for the pump. I located the hot wire, tested it and it read 12.17 volts. Next I tried the wire to the pump and it read about 12 volts. There is another wire that comes from the ignition switch. I tested that and it was fine, but turns off after about 5-10 seconds, because then then the computer takes over control of delivering fuel to the pump. So after figuring all this out I knew it was the pump and put a new one in and voila thankfully that was the problem and not the computer. If you can find a wiring diagram for your 88(my chiltons is for 89-93 only), you should be able to use a voltmeter and find out exactly what the problem is.
Good Luck!
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