I rebuilt the fuel pump of my 1995 Volvo 850 Turbo last month. Immediately after the replacement, I had excellent performance and power for a minute. Then, the problems started. My power went away, and the performance has been degrading at an alarming rate this week.

Further alarming, now my clutch seems to be malfunctioning. When I engage the emergency brake, depress the clutch, put the manual transmission into 1st or 2nd gear, the car does not stall. I tightened the fuel pump gasket earlier today and applied Seal All, a gasoline safe sealant, to the threading. The performance increased slightly, but my car still lacks half the power it had.

I am definitely behind on vehicle maintenance, and I have to change my oil filter and my air filter.

I park on a hill with my emergency brake engaged. Typically, 1st gear should prevent a manual transmission from rolling down a hill. However, my vehicle now rolls backwards a few feet before the immobilized gears prevent the vehicle from sliding further downhill. Does this mean my clutch is shot? What can I do to figure this out?

I replaced my fuel pump because the vehicle was stalling frequently. Now, I have more problems than before, although the vehicle no longer stalls. Imagine the frustration of having to drive with emergency blinkers everywhere, because my car can no longer get up to speed or perform on the highway. I used to be able to get up to 80 MPH reasonably quickly, now I am lucky to get from 25 to 45 MPH.

Could low fuel pressure cause the clutch to fail to engage properly?

Thank you!

 

How do you know it is running lean?

Tightening the pump and putting anything on the threads will do nothing for fuel pressure, so you wouldn't feel any difference from that.

Fuel pressure will not affect your clutch. Are you sure you don't have a parking brake problem?

 

I don't like going through life wondering what's wrong, and I really believe in owning and using diagnostic tools. My fuel pressure gauge is one of my most used diagnostic tools, but it has a straight fitting to connect, and it's quite difficult to get it to fit on a volvo. I need a right angle adapter of some sort.

The problem with parking is not the clutch.