I have a 1988 5.0 TBI Camaro. For some reason im not geting any power the pump. Temporarly i ran a wire from the battery to the fuel pump. Primary concern is if this is bad on the fuel pump? When using this temporary technique, their was definetly fuel pressure to TBI where i disconect the fuel line. However no fuel comes out of the injectors when trying to start the car. Im extremly unfamiliar with TBI and was wondering where the problem lies as far as why fuel isnt coming out of the injectors?

A good way to hot wire the pump for testing is at the relay socket. Unplug the relay and short the contact wires (extream ends of three pings in a row, one oriented - and the other two oriented | | ).

The ECM looks for distributor pulses, and in some cases crank shaft pulses before it will enable the fuel pump and injectors. This is partly a safety feature and partly because the ECM wants to calibrate itself to TDC before turning on the juice. So make sure your ignition module and crankshaft sensor are good. A haynes manual should have a simple diagnostic procedure.

I have a 89 5.0 TBI and have just been fighting the same symptons as you have. I have also had occasions when the car died at a stop light due to a rough idle.
I replaced the ignition control module, for about 40 dollars from Kragen, this fixed the problem albeit temporarily, I pulled all fuzes and sanded them, replaced them and this worked for a while too. I finally replaced the ECM for about 103 dollars, It was worth the insurance since I believe the rough idle was either this or the O2 sensor. Well, after all that, it still sounded like there was no spark. While lying upside down in the front floor board, I found a red lead wire that had a fusible link heading towards the ECM module. It had a small red tag on it that said to connect to a live signal, (Always hot,regardless of ignition position. ) I pulled down the fuse box and connected directly to the back of the fuse box slot labeled "Bat".
The car starts up immediately now, and if it doesn't, i just shake that wire and it will. I think I have a short in this wire somewhere, but since I know where the problem is, I will replace this . The car is running great now, and I can start it immediately if I have a problem.

Is their anyway to run codes before going through the trouble of checking everything everything it be. Note the inspection ran out in '99. So the cars been siting close to six years now. The person who owned it before me tried starting it while the battery was being charged and consequently fried the ECM. Their were also mice in it, so im not sure how to islolate where the problem might be. I checked the fuse box and replaced the ECM. One problem is that theirs no power to the fuel pump. So i hot wired the pump which then ran. I checked and fuel lines and they were definetly under pressure. However when trying to start the car, no fuel came out of the injectors. I was wondering if maybe the replacement ECM is messed up or possibly a blown fuse before the ECM?

You can get codes out of it and I think it is easy to do for your 88. There are two pins on the diag connector that will make it flash codes on the check engine light. But I'd recommend getting a cheap code reader from your local autoparts store. Should be less than $20 and will come with a manual to tell you what the codes mean.

Trouble with pre-OBDII engine controls though (1996+) is that they often will dump a multitude of codes for a single problem or no codes at all. There is no substitute for the manual diagnostics. So if you're looking for a quick easy "this is it" fix, it probably won't happen without checking things with a digital volt meter and some visual inspection.

Get a haynes or mitchel manual for your car. You'll find diagnostic procedures for most of the major sensors and control systems you can complete with your digital volt meter. Codes are only part of the equation and usually you'll have to reason through which code is meaningful and which are not.

Check out http://www.thirdgen.org. You'll find lots of info on your generation of car. Most they guys here are 1st gen owners, and the few that do own thirdgen cars hang out on the thirdgen site as well. But I'm not trying to run you off -glad to have you around.