jps subie died on the road

This may be a Ted type of problem. You are intermittently shorting somewhere.

Does it happen at a certain point as the engine is revving up?

no particular point--just driving at different speeds---somewhere?? is the problem-dont see any indication of where

Sound like harness or wires run between pieces that move/vibrate or thru firewall with no rubber grommet and wires wore thru and frayed - causing a short.  Pain to find but better a fuse than smoking wiring harness.

the harness from the fuel pump to the altenator only runs thru fiberglass and is visible down the right side of the chassis just above the water pipes,not touching any metal--no sign of any rub thru anywhere --could a bad relay or pump be the cause

Bear in mind that few people on here know a whole lot about any JPS cars - they are "a little different" from the norm - even from one to the next.

That said, what was the outside temperature when this was all happening?  30 Amp is a big, honking fuse and way bigger than what is normally feeding a fuel pump - 20 amp to a fuel pump might be a lot.  Regardless, make sure you follow that wire to make certain where it goes and then, depending on the outside temp I might be inclined to think it's a heat related failure - even fuel pumps can get hot, expand and seize up.  But I would REALLY like to know where that big wire goes for sure.....

john will be back tuesday for info on the wiring-it was only a 70 degree day- and this is after 2500 trouble free miles- one of his guys says it is the fuel pump wire which runs from the altenator to a relay in the engine compartment and then to the fuel pump up front.

An old trick on Rabbits was to put a smaller fuse in the fuel pump circuit and when that blew you'd go bigger until it blew the correctly rated one. Theb it was time to change the fuel pump.

If you've traced it out and found nothing you need to put an ammeter on that wire and put the gauge where you can see it as you drive. When it spikes past 30 amps, you'll have found the conditions that caused this.

yesterday I drove the car without blowing the fuse--but I had not really fixed anything , so now im confused

Nice play on words.

Jerry,

I wish I knew a quick fix for you.  What I have found is that our cars are so unique that reputable shops, i.e, auto electric shops, are gun shy of doing any work at all, since very few (or none) of us can supply wiring diagrams, diagnostic tools, etc. that other cars have.  When you can arm twist your local sparky into diagnosing/fixing what ails you, they put up lots of caveats before starting the work--it will take a couple of weeks, we'll have to go through the whole system, yada, yada.  My favorite is when they get the car on the rack, then start with the "tsk, tsk".  I'm not trying to be negative, just realistic.  We all pay a price for having such one-off rides.  When you do get it psyched out, please let the rest of us know what the fault was.  Best of luck!

FOUND THE PROBLEM-- found 7 burnt wires in a electrical taped harness that was hanging with about 12 extra inches of wire on the right side of the engine near the firewall and it was hanging right over the muffler. I guess it took 2000 miles to finally burn thru--

Yikes! Glad you found the issue. Sounds like one of those 'one off' situations where maybe the builder forgot to go back and 'button that up' prior to handing it off.

Glad it was nothing more serious.

Ted

That'll do it!

Good on ya, Jerry!  I'm glad you got it fixed, and thx for letting the group know what was the fault.  It makes all of us better mechanics.

Could have been avoided if the builder used 1 more wire tie. But hey, I'll bet you learned one more thing about your hand built car. Congrats.

Good thing it wasn't a fuel line...