Clogged fuel return line - rear tank

[renjaminfrankln]

Anyone ever dealt with this issue? It would be awesome if I could clear this without having to pull the tank or bed.

The rear tank return line is clogged somewhere. It was like this when I bought the truck two years ago and I have never used it. Switching to the rear tank pressurizes the return lines on the engine and they leak. Doing some further troubleshooting I found the rear tank return line is the problem, it is clogged and it will hold 60psi of air lol. I tried blowing it out with compressed air and following the line back and wiggling it around, no luck there.

One thing to note is that I think the tank is empty. I wonder if I put a few gallons in, if it sloshing around would do any good.

 

[themechanicalford]

So when working on an oil fired furnace there exists a tool for blowing clogs out of supply lines back toward the tank. You would need to be able to flair the line and put a nut on though unless you could get a fitting on that line some other way. The tool holds a co2 canister and as you screw it in it releases the whole canister.

 

[gnathv]

Is the fsv clogged? Or is it between the tank and fsv?

 

[renjaminfrankln]

between tank and fsv

 

[gnathv]

Have you taken line off of tank and are sure it’s in the line itself?

 

[renjaminfrankln]

Have you taken line off of tank and are sure it’s in the line itself?

No, i'm thinking it may be in the sending unit...

I don't think it is possible to get the line off w/o dropping the tank. I may try and see if I can reach in there though..

 

[gnathv]

I’ve pulled the rear out with lowering the tank some, but if I did it again I’d take it out instead. The locking nut on sending unit is just a chore.

 

[gandalf]

Here's a picture of the rear tank connections, just in case you get real ambitious and try to do this with the tank in place. I guess it's possible, but I would say very frustrating. You have almost no clearance, you can't see anything when your hand is in there doing things. Honestly, I'd either drop the tank or pull the bed.

The picture is of my '92 CC. They should be about the same.

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[catbird7]

You might try popping the little white clip on the return line at the sender, and then remove it from the selector valve. With the line in hand you can quickly determine where the clog is.

 

[renjaminfrankln]

Thanks for the pic, big help, its closer than I thought to the frame rail there, might be a way I can get in there and work on it. I think the sender is functional, so if I can just get the clog fixed then i'll have a fully functional rear tank

regarding dropping the tank, how difficult will that be solo with just a floor jack? tank is empty I think. I imagine that would be quite the balancing act

 

[gnathv]

If it’s empty it’s not that heavy, just a balancing act as you say.

 

[TNBrett]

I find it much easier to remove the bed. I prefer being able to stand up and see what I’m doing. It’s also nice clean off the top of the tank so that you knock a bunch of crap into it. You also don’t have to worry about rusty bolts on tank straps.


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[renjaminfrankln]

Well I found the problem. The pickup/sender is not the correct one for the rear tank, the lines come out at completely different angles from your pic and the hard plastic lines have to make quite a bend with no room to do it against the bottom of the bed. it almost looks like it a front tank sender. The return line was kinked right at the sender. The pickup line was kinked as well. I did succeed in fixing the return line, but I broke the pickup line when trying to fix it. Oh well, it was all f'd anyway, i'll have to pull the bed or drop the tank and get the right pickup/sender in there.

 

[gnathv]

That’s half the battle, you know what’s wrong with it, now to find the parts to fix it. One day you can say that you drive it more than you work on it.

 

[renjaminfrankln]

That’s half the battle, you know what’s wrong with it, now to find the parts to fix it. One day you can say that you drive it more than you work on it.

Yep.. also managed to drain all the fuel out of it, so its 100% empty now, might get some motivation to drop it soon.

I've taken a lot of diesel to the face recently but I have a new sender in my front tank and the rear is not far behind!