New to the forum. Been reading a lot and have learned quite a bit. So, last night I was changing my oil and fuel filters on a new to me truck. Everything was going fine until the end. I crawled under the truck to replace the lower fuel filter. Found the filter and drain tube, but no lever. I guess at some point it broke off. Can I still change that fuel filter? I know I'll have a lot more diesel come out when I break the seal on it, but I don't see any other way to change it. Thoughts?

 

You can change it. Make sure you look real good for the drain lever. They can be tough to see.

 

that drain is to periodically drain water especially in the winter when condensation occurs in the tanks.....you need to get the level repaired...failure to drain the water on a regular basis could result in damage to your injectors ...and that requires a cab off repair which involves replacing most of the associated one time use fuel system componets.

on your filter change...make sure you use motorcraft filters only...and make sure the air bleed hole in the lower filter is at the 12:00 position. cycle the ignition on wait 30 seconds..off 6 times before you start the truck to bleed out all the air. there is also an air bleed on the fuel cooler near the brake fluid resivor that looks like a tire aire valve...bleed the air on that while its running....it usally spits out air for half a second when ever the upper filter is changed.

 

Thank you for the detailed reply! I used all motorcraft filters so I'm good there. The lever is definitely not there. I looked for quite a while thinking I was crazy and just not seeing it. Anyone know what would be involved in replacing that?

 

I believe there's 3 screws that hold it on, you can get a kit from Ford, I think it includes the lever and gasket, seems like I remember seeing it as $40.00.

 

I figured it would be a huge pain to change and of course....expensive. If it's only $40ish and a few screws I'll definitely get a new one this week. Thanks again everyone.

 

9A214 in this pic is what you want: (Link below for the part).



2008 Ford F-250 Super Duty Fuel Tank Vent Tube Drain Plug | FordParts.com