help! my van is working perfectly! fuel pump? issue

I have a 1984 toyota van, it is my 4th, I bought it about 5 years ago and it supposedly needed a new fuel pump, I can't remember whether or not I put one in but it had another thing it was doing where it would send a little spurt of gas (I think it was the cold injector working but then no more gas, I monkeyed with it trying over and over again to start it and it would run half a second and die and then eventually it just ran. I never really knew what was wrong so it ran for 5 years or so and then a few days ago i went to another nearby town and when I stopped it it wouldnt start again, called a wrecker towed it home and viola it started taking it off the flatbed, the next day i took it to dinner when i came out no start. overnight went back and up it started, got it home no start and then after sitting over night it didn't start so I used the shunt to run the pump didnt hear anything checked at the back plug, Power was there so I pull the tank pull the pump test it and it works perfectly, i set it in a bucket of gas under the van (I know) checked the pressure at the fuel rail and it was 40 psi so what the hell i started it, perfect runs like a champ I run it for 15 minutes shut it down starts right back up again I do it a couple more times and perfect so I am in trouble here I am going to Burningman the back way Jungo Road 100 miles of dirt isolation and trouble so I am loathe to do it in a van that may or may not start. what do you think oh all knowing sages? Heat soak? tired pump? bad luck? let me know quick

Intermittent problems suck. They will always vanish when you troubleshoot. Since you already got the pump out I'd go ahead & replace. At least then you'll know one more thing that it isn't. Toyota pumps are expensive but there are options. Here's a quote from another thread:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by timsrv

Yes, Toyota pumps are very expensive (probably well over $400 by now). A possible alternative is aftermarket. I recently tried an aftermarket fuel pump from eBay. Normally I'm pretty strict about keeping my vans Toyota, but this one is a beater & I don't plan on driving it for very long. The pump (US Motor Works #USEP8023) cost $37.98 & had free shipping. It came quickly & included the pick-up filter & the outlet hose. Anyway, I was very impressed with the "perceived" quality & it looked/fit exactly like the original. So far it's been performing flawlessly over the past 6 months/6k miles. It was such an exceptional value I picked up a couple extras for spares. One curious thing I noticed is the application list for this pump is massively huge. It fits around 800 different makes, models & trim levels (including Dodge Sprinters) & is also used with diesel engines. Here's a link to the pump: http://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Motor-Wor...9d5acd&vxp=mtr. Tim

PS: I just noticed these are about to sell out, so I just purchased a couple more for spares. Tim

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This same thing happened to me , it was a loose connection and or bad relay at the fuse panel under the dash , i replaced the fuel pump and filter before i figured it out, i also replaced the alternator because of the same problem.