94 civic DX automatic

New Relay & Fuel Pump, the car will sometimes start just fine, but will stall after some time.

It will then restart fine or the fuel pump will not kick in and it wont start at all, obviously.

When the fuel pump doesn't kick in, if you leave the key in the on position you can hear the shifter solenoid going berserk, random on/off, leave the key on and after several minutes of this the fuel pump will kick in, the solenoid stops clicking and your good to go, until the next time it stalls...

What the heck is causing this?

I have cleaned all the ground cables and the thermostat housing, all the electrical contacts, it seems like a loose ground but I can't find it.

The ignition doesn't seem to be the issue since there is power to the dash, just nothing to the fuel pump or distributor. The distributor looks good, but could that be the issue, or could the starter possibly cause this?

Im going to take the ECU off and give it a sniff test next, but has anyone had similar issues to this?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks!

 

From my experience, solenoid or relay chatter is usually caused by bad solder joints. And, typically these bad solder joints show up in electronic modules where there are large circuit board components that did not get enough heat penetration in the solder wave stations on the assembly line. As such, they develop cracks in the solder over time which are visible to the naked eye. As to which module to look at first I do not know.

 

Main Relay?