Pertneer's Blog

Decided to do some deep diagnostics on the fuel issue today since spring has sprung.

Since the fuel pump was able to bring the pressure up to the correct amount I had a wild guess to just drop the tank and see if there was an issue with the pickup. As I lowered the tank from the frame I noticed with enough certainty that I had discovered the issue. First off the tank was full, yep totally full. Not easy to take the tank out with all of that gas in it, but the it was needed to be able to get to the issue. It seams that ever since I first put the tank in after totally rebuilding it I overlooked the fact that you must not let the fuel line get pinched between the tank and the body tub. I believe that the tube, when it was new, was strong enough to remain open and not cause an issue when it was new, now add 5 – 10 years and this hose could no longer remain open long enough to provide the amount of fuel needed to run the 5.0 for anymore then a few seconds at a time.

During the removal I created another issue which needed to be resolved before I could put the tank back in place. It seams that the manufacturer of the sending unit did not intend for the return tube to support the entire weight of a full tank of gas and the tank hanging as it fell off the jack which I was using to hold the weight of the tank. So now I had to clean the tank from all of the dried mud before I could fix the tube. Now the dilemma was how do I take 12 gallons of fuel out of the tank and get it to fit into a 5 gallon can. Glad the truck needed a few gallons I guess. After getting the fuel to siphon out of the tank and spitting out the nastiness the line decided to share with me.  I finished emptying the tank I proceeded to  take out the sending unit and see if I could fix the return tube. The soldering iron did work anymore, the hand torch nozzle seam to emit flames from all orifices so I turned to old reliable. Miller to the rescue. Millermatic 180 to be exact. Burn the tube back into place and it should even hold to a little tugging needed to remove the tube next time I need to take it apart.  Which I hope in not real soon!

I spent the next hour trying to see above the tank to make sure that the tube did not get pinched again. Between having to drop it three times to find where the return hose was, the rear portion of the wire harness, and to get the sending unit reattached I finally had the tank back in place and the line were not pinched. Reattached  the battery and hit the key. It started right off. Now the moment of truth. Looking at the fuel pressure gauge, it read 37 lbs of pressure. nice an stable too. No more fluctuating pressure, but will it rev up when I hit the gas? Lets just say the neighbors heard it and came looking. “Hey you get it running?” “Yep I did and it only cost me 6 bucks!” Cheap fix for such a long drawn out affair.

Now I just need to take it to a trail and have some fun!!!