My elderly uncle has a 2001 Ford Ranger V-6 with 68K miles on it. Long story short, the fuel pump went down. I took the bed off, removed the pump assembly, confirmed the pump was bad and ordered a new one. Just out of curiosity I took the strainer "sock" off the assembly and washed it with Dawn dishwashing soap and hot water. I was washing it in a closed sink and the water turned black. No large chunks of anything, just very, very fine sedminent (I would call it dust) that took an hour or so to settle out of the water (the tank itself is spotless). I suspect the strainer got clogged and caused the pump to fail.

My questions are these...if the "strainer" is capable of filtering out very, very fine material...isn't it a failure point for the pump? Why is a filter of that fineness placed in front of the pump and acutal fuel filter that's on the inside rail? Wouldn't it be better to have a true screen on the intake to stop the larger stuff that might chew a pump apart, but allow the small fines to pass thru and get caught by the fuel filter?

 

Welcome to FTE. Nice thing you've done for Uncle.

Lets think about this some more, seeing as how so far, there hasn't been a recall for the kind of problem you're supposing exists, thus maybe you should ask uncle if he has been buying his fuel at a low volume station that would clog up a sock in 68 k miles & or, did he do so at one when a fuel tanker was making a delivery that stirred things up???
Most brands require the station operator to take the tank off line for a specified amount of time during & after a fill, but maybe the attendant got busy & forgot???

Also, the fuel filter is on a 30K mile scheduled maintenance replacement, so this puppy should be on its Second fuel filter & you didn't mention if the vehicle has been & is up to date on Scheduled Maintenance replacement items, like the fuel filter, or if you also replaced the fuel filter after replacing the pump???

Seeing as how the screen sediment did its clog thing, bet the fuel filter is likely loaded too, so I'd suggest, without delay he come by the specified Motorcraft fuel filter & have you change it too, even if it was done on schedule 8K miles ago at 60 K miles, as he might have unknowingly gotten a dirty fill-up thats also loaded or clogged the fuel filter & that could shorten the new pump life, or take it out fast.

More thoughts for consideration.

 

To be honest, he died last weekend from dementia. He had dementia for three or four years (we had to take his keys back in 2016) and trying to find records he did keep is difficult at best. One of the stages he went thru was to tear any and every piece of paper he found into little postage size pieces he then threw in the trash.

I do know the two or three places he fueled at was very high-volume, but since you mentioned it, I'll go ahead and change the fuel filter as well.

PS...I notice you're in SWVA. I'm in Bristol. Thanks for all your advice and insight!

 

Condolences on your Uncle's death. Dementia is very tough to deal with for the entire family.
Have a 2001 ExST here,
same Frame+DriveTrain as 2001 RangerXLT with V6~4.0L~SOHC Engine;
owned since 2002 at 10kMiles, now at 250kMiles.
Do try to remember to renew FuelFilter routinely & run a tank of PremiumGas plus FuelSystemCleaner once\twice a year;
believe this helps keep Tank\Pump\Filter\Injectors in better condition.
KnockOnWood, have not yet had to change out factory FuelPump.