Keep blowing main relay - 1991 civic
 

Idle surge and other items solved, but the car broke down on me. I replaced the main relay and the car ran fine for a few days then shifting into second gear the engine died and would not start. No fuel pump activity. Towed it home checked the new main relay and no current to the fuel pump. Did a jumper wire to the fuel pump harness under the back set as a bypass, and pump came on and car started and ran fine.

Could I gotten a bad main relay? Or is there something else going on like a electrical surge. I got new relay and installing tonight. Also, I'm going to do a jumper wire on a toggle switch as a back up in the future. Is this wise to do or foolish? Also, I am changing out the fuel pump tonight. The fuel pump has 488,000 miles on it and I believe the pump maybe going and is causing a draw or surge of some kind, that might cause the relay to short out... maybe...

I also re-sodered the original relay and it did not work... Any advice???

Thanks,
AMS

Check your ECU grounds on the engine. The ECU turns on the main relay. If you're sure the relay is OK, ECU could be bad.

If the ECU is not working, likely the spark plugs won't fire either. That would be a way to differentiate the ECU from the fuel pump.