underhood relay center bad?

[BLACK&chrome]

lately my fuel pump hasn't been wanting to kick on. new pump , i can go to the relay center and unplug fuel pump relay and plug it back in and it will kick on. i bought a new fuel pump relay and it didn't change the way it works or doesn't. Could the box itself be bad? if so does anyone know where to find one rather not do ebay.. and havent turned any up on searches.

 

[someotherguy]

The Vortec trucks are known for cooking that socket. The fuel pump relay runs stupid hot and over time that connection can get messed up. The pins may be smoked and no longer make good contact.

An idea I had years ago was to pull the wiring from that socket and make a standalone fuel pump relay socket off to the side. I haven't tried looking up any specs to see if this particular idea was feasible or not, but the TBI trucks had a much larger fuel pump relay with its own standalone socket right there on the firewall under the plastic electrical center cover. If that big relay is sufficiently spec'd electrically, I'd say it might make a good replacement, just be sure to solder in the wiring instead of using crimp connectors.

Richard