My new to me '91 Tracker quit running

I wanted to get a good look at the Tracker I just bought. To sum up the history, I picked this thing up a few weeks back for $500. It had been sitting in the PO driveway for about 18 months. After towing it home, I fixed the broken starter wire and was able to get it to fire right up. Today, I put it up on my ramps. Got up the ramp OK, though I had to give it a bit more gas than I expected. When I went to get it off, it didn't want to start. It finally started, but barely ran. It sputtered like mad and quit. Did this a few times. Now it won't start.

When I bought it, the tank was pretty much empty, the needle was right near "E". I poured about 5 gallons of fresh fuel in it. Prior to putting it on the ramp, I had run the engine last weekend just to move it around my driveway and test the brakes. Then this morning, I had it running for just a couple minutes while I took pictures, then another minute to get it on the ramps. It ran fine then. So the engine has been run 4-5 minutes in total before this happened.

Where do I start? Fuel filter?

Klayfish wrote: Where do I start? Fuel filter?

Seems like a good guess to me. Cheap, not a bad idea anyhow, so I don't think you have to feel bad about starting there rather than a pressure/volume test...

Filter is cheap and probably needed anyway, but probably not the answer.

I don't know these cars at all, but first test for spark (pull a plug, put the wire on it and leave it touching the block to see if it sparks while you crank it. You can also see if it will run on starting fluid. If that all checks out the. It is fuel, and go backwards from the injectors and see if there is a problem.

Could also be an old relay that fails, happens on Hondas a bunch, the main relay fails and then you get no fuel.

Thanks. I'll check for spark. The only reason I was guessing fuel filter, or some fuel issue, is the way it stopped running. It didn't just cut out cold. The first time, it stumbled and quit. It immediately fired back up, but was sputtering. I feathered the gas a little, and it revved up briefly then stumbled and quit. It did that once more, and was stumbling for a good 15 seconds, then quit. At this point, the battery is weak...it was drained when I got the truck and I didn't get it fully charged.

Those fuel pumps do not like to sit idle for long periods of time. We had three of them on a car lot I worked for that sat for 6-8 months, and all three of them ended up needing new fuel pumps. Check the fuel pressure, but I'm guessing you'll need a pump.

Fuel pumps tend to go bad on those. To change it most people cut a hole in the floor above the tank since removing the tank is a PITA

In reply to mw:

I am guessing pump too. Like Corey said, they don't like to sit for any period of time. Cutting hole in floorboard will save a ton of time on the pump change.

BBC