What seemed yesterday of the truck running out of fuel, filled up from fuel transfer tank and it was good to go.

This morning after fillup, truck died again, changed clogged fuel filter on roadside.

Have only driven 70 miles since and the filter is getting air pumped into it.
my fuel guage has been dying, reads wall full till about empty. Now its gotten a bit worse.

I fear the siphon tube in tank has broken free or worse, a crack in a fuel line allowing air in...

Is my fuel pump mechanical or electric? Where is it located? What sizes are my fuel line? Any ideas?

Am waiting on AAA for more fuel, then once I can get into town, search and try to find and fix the issue.

1997 F350 Diesel 7.3 Manual

 

Think its the fuel tank, got 2.5 gallons in the tank from AAA and primed the filter, down to a fuel station where I barely got 5 gallons in. Looks like my tank is running out at 3/4 tank.

 

I would guess the pickup must be broken off. FYI you have one mechanical fuel pump in the valley of the motor. IIRC one fuel line is 5/16 and one is 3/8.

 

Supply is 3/8, return is 5/16.

What does it do on the other tank?

 

I think the most common repair is to use the other tank.

 

Other tank was not in service till about 30 minutes ago, months ago, had a tire blow out and the tread acted like a flail that crushed the fill neck completely for the rear tank. It was run near empty and then not used because it would fill fuel at .5 gallons an hour.

A quick trip to home depot for a braided vinyl hose and pvc cap that fit snugly and I was able to fill the tank again, running it and opening the water drain valve a couple times just in case water got into the tank before taking the truck back to my bosses (work truck) and he will have his mechanic fix it this weekend.

 

Had the same thing happen to me with the tire tread separating and destroying stuff. i had to replace all of that AND the bed side skin. so you going to pull the bed off to fix the front? take some pics and post them up so we can see how it went.

 

Boss sent the truck to his mechanic, got the truck back will a new fill neck to replace my temporary fix for the rear fuel tank. Front tank not fixed due to not finding parts and parts found were insanely expensive so the plan was to finish the now late runs using the rear tank.

On rt, truck runs out of fuel on rear tank, okay, fuel guage does not work. As a precaution, I brought a 6 gallon can of diesel, tank filled full at 6 gallons. Now I have to believe the rear tank is suffering from the same problem.

So, pending the bosses approval to buy the parts, my plan is to get a fuel tank of at least 30 gallons, mount it in the bed, run a fuel out and fuel return line.

I recall someone saying this truck has a mechanical fuel pump, where is it, what size fuel line do I need for the fuel line and return line. My plan would be to bypass the trucks fuel systen and run direct lines to an in bed tank.

Anything I need to know before doing that?

Thanks.

 

If I were going to use an in bed tank, and not use the existing truck tanks, I would plumb the added tank to the truck fuel lines from the tank selector to the engine. The front two lines on the selector are the ones I'd remove from the selector valve and run them to the tank. The selector valve is located in the drivers side frame rail, just behind the cab. All that said, the "shower head" fuel strainer/pickup in the tank might have rotted off, leaving you running out of fuel at around 1/4 tank. A short piece of tube and a compression union added tor the pickup tube in the tank is a cheap fix, but the tanks have to be dropped to get the fuel sender/pickup tubes out to add to the tube.

 

I'm confused about why you're doing this work on your bosses truck. I hope you're being reimbursed for this. If this were your personal truck, I can understand the concern about wanting to fix it fast, but a work-owned truck should be the responsibility of the business-owner as a part of doing business.

I hope you can find a resolution to this problem, but I think it really should be handled by the boss. I commend you on your efforts. What happens to the modifications, you made when it's time to fix the truck?