97 f250 dual tanks with a 460 and 4x4. My front gas tank is not working, but its not working in a strange way.

1. Went to start up truck and I got a click from the starter as if the solenoid was bad. Tried to jump same reaction, fiddled with engine ground and tried to start but wasn't turning over as if it had no fuel.

2. Switched to back tank, got the click again. Finagled with engine ground started up again. Switched to front tank, engine died immediately, however, power was still on.

Normally, I would say that this was a bad pump, but if it was a bad pump it should spit and sputter then die as if getting no fuel. It seems to be dying as if the coil stops getting power. Any ideas why that would be related to the fuel tank switch?

 

No ideas or not enough information?

 

sounds like your front pump is dead
now the clicking and finnigling with wires and the no turn over problem is not the pump
fuel does not make an engine spin as you turn the ignition key
sounds like a bad ground or bad wires on the battery
yes when you switch to a no pump issue the truck dies
no spit no sputter-you lose the pressure the injectors don't spray

 

So two unrelated problems manifesting at once. haha great and thanks.

 

Is there a separate pump relay for each in tank pump?

 

dont worry every truck i had either one tank would siphon into the other or the front fuel pump died. range is greatly decreased when all you have is the rear tank

 

No, there is only one fuel pump relay. The dash selector switch routes the power to the selected tank and also switches the fuel sender signal to the gauge.

Similar to this diagram for a 1991 truck:

courtesy of oldfuelinjection.com

 

Thanks for the diagram. Believe it or not its actually this damn engine ground that keeps giving me issues. I cleaned off the wire and the bolt on the engine itself and I still have to fiddle with it to get it to start, so I'll be buying a new one pretty quick. REdoing the entire steering system, radiator, and front axle. Ill make sure to do it then.