Was cruising down the interstate yesterday in my 95 PSD and started getting a pretty strong odor of diesel fuel. Scanned the gauges and saw that I had lost almost a half a tank of fuel in about 8 miles. Pulled over and shut her down and checked under the hood. Diesel fuel everywhere. Looked under the truck and it's still running off of the back of the motor. Looked around for the source but couldn't locate the leak. Had her towed to the house and had my wife fire the engine up while I was looking under the hood. Fuel shot out from under the fuel filter housing like crazy as I was trying to get out from under the hood and yelling at my wife to shut her down.
Well today I found the problem. The bottom of the housing is corroded really bad and a hole had developed. I was able to poke another hole through it with a small screwdriver. Checked all of the salvage yards and all of the mechanics that I know trying to find a replacement. No luck. A new housing is like $600!! Does ANYBODY know where I might find a good used one at a reasonable price?

 

well just keep your eye open here and on ebay but if you end needing to buy a new I would use that money and get an electric pump fuel system!

 

Is there enough material left to take the filter can out and to a local mom n pop machine shop? Seems like about a 4.5" Dia. x 6" long piece of 6061t651 aluminum and the old part and the filter thread callout and you ought to be able to reverse engineer one. You could even anodize it the color of your truck. Or you could have the bottom machined clean and press a plug in and weld it? Keep in mind I just pulled these thoughts outa my --------ear. good luck

 

hey freddie, the same thing happened to me on the highway, i figured if my canister went on mine at 184K, a used canister will be delaying the enevitable. i got mine directly from ford. list was $274.00 and i got it for $230 with out the fuel pressure regulator, (with the fpr, its like $500) through my buddy's shop. its a little steep, but if your gonna pull out the old one, and change all the fuel lines, why put another one that might last 30k? my only guess as to why this happens is, when the fuel filter hasnt been changed in a while, the dirt and crud falls off and settles on the bottom of the canister and starts to eat the soft aluminum. after you take the heater off, (left hand thread, 7/8" crowfoot) youll be able to see what i mean. i have heard others using jb weld but i wouldnt trust it. hope this helps man

 

check with some of the other popular ford forumns...alot of guys are upgrading to electric fuel systems...I'm sure you can find one cheap

 

Thanks for the replys guys. Got my truck running again this afternoon. Here's a short recap of where I have been in the process. Looked for a good used unit at the salvage yards. Nothing local but one in Nebraska. Couldn't get any straight scoop on it's condition so skipped it. Found one on ebay but the guy didn't want to send me any clear pics of it so I could verify that it was the right one. Talked with a local diesel mechanic to see if he may have a source. He said he didn't know where to get one but that he had used JB weld to repair them in the past. I said er, ok and left. Called the stealership. $385 plus tax and not in stock. Went to visit the premier diesel mechanic in the area. He had one that was in the same shape as mine. He also suggested using JB weld. When I gave him that skepticle look, he said that he has a customer that is running on a JB weld repaired housing right now that was repaired over 100,000 miles ago! Considering this guys reputation I had to start rethinking this proposal. I followed his advise to have the housing bead blasted and then wash it out with acetone before applying the JB. After I bead blasted it, I had 3 small holes! I washed it out with acetone, put tape over the holes on the outside to keep the JB in until it set. Bought the two part tubes vs the roll JB and mixed and poured/pushed it into the housing and let it self level. Gave it a day to set up, cleaned out the water drain hole with a drill and put her back in. So far so good. Oh, while I was in there I replaced the the black plastic center tube (I wish you would have told me it was left hand thread befor I broke it off.. lol) and the heater plate. Those two dinky azz little parts were $102 at Ford. What a rip off! Anyway, I'm Strokin' again!

 

OOPS!

but anyway glad to hear y9ou didn't lose and arm and leg in the deal and your back on the road

 

Thanks tj. I'm still feeling a little nervous about the repair but only time will tell. Also, from what I can find out the water standing in the bottom of the housing is what causes the corrosion. Some kind of electro-chemical reaction. It appears that the water sensor is not at the very bottom of the housing and thus water can be present without setting off the warning light....