I've done a good bit of searching and didn't run across anything that sounded like this. I'm sure I could have missed one, but here goes.

I have an 87 F150 4x4, 300 6cyl, 4 speed, 4.11 gears (gets awesome mileage!), with 50,000 miles on it. The truck sat for several years and both tanks were replaced with used tanks along with the valve that switches between tanks. This was done before I bought it a couple years ago. Sending units don't work very good in either tank, but it they do bounce the needle on the gauge occassionally.

The front tank quit working several months ago and I have been running off the back tank which I can usually run on for approx 200 miles. A couple weeks ago the truck tried to lay down on me. Felt like it was running out of gas. Made it to a station, filled up, and it ran fine. Ran it a while longer and after about 125 miles, the same thing happened. Filled up and it ran fine.

Now the question. I know from the last fill up that my mileage hasn't changed which makes me think the fuel pickup in the rear tank may have moved. Is this possible? How are they attached inside the tank? Is this something that I could fix or do I need a new tank? I'm not very mechanical, but I am willing to learn and would really like to fix it myself.

Sorry for being so wordy.

TIA,

Chris

 

If your truck has the non-electric fuel tank selector valve (9B263) it may be failing, they have been known to move the fuel one fuel tank to the other instaed of feeding the engine. Is the fuel gauge for the front tank going up? Was recall 93S68 performed if your VIN was involved? Part of 93S68 was to install a one way check valve on the feed line at the tank, these also can fail Ford base number 9J274 if I remember correctly. Good luck.