Truck died pulling into gas station

[darthj]

Hello, First time posting here, and I hope y'all will be able to help me out. I was driving home from work yesterday and pulled into a gas station to fill up, and as I was pulling around to the diesel pump, and engine suddenly died, tried restarting it but it just cranked. I tried pressing the schrader valve on the fuel filter head but no fuel came out, so I'm figuring it must not be getting any fuel up there. The fuel gauge still showed right around a 1/4 tank, tried switching to the other tank but that didn't seem to make a difference. Had it towed to the closest Ford dealer but they called this morning and said it was too old for them to work on. I figure I'll just have it towed home and try to figure out what is wrong with it this weekend. So I'm wondering if it could be something like the lift pump going bad?
Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[firehawk]

Did you fill up? Sounds like you have broken shower heads and just sucked air.

 

[darthj]

It died before I could get around to the diesel pump. I was sort of worried that it might be the shower heads, would that cause it to die suddenly like it did?

 

[jada64]

Try putting 3 or 4 gallons in it. Then crank it while you press that valve to purge the air. If you get fuel at the valve and it still wont start crack the injector lines enough to let the air out also while cranking. Should start up then close those lines. Just got air in the system it sounds like.

I cant believe that the ford dealer refused to work on it. Never heard of such an instance. Are they even allowed to deny service like that?


I actually had my truck run out of fuel on my way home from picking it up. Thankfully I had fuel in the 2nd tank and I got it to start with some cranking on the side of the road.

 

[firehawk]

What a sad dealership. Shows the level of their knowledge if they can't even be bothered to look at it.

 

[Mulochico]

Did you fill up? Sounds like you have broken shower heads and just sucked air.

X2^^^

Put some fuel in it like was said above (2-4 gallons). Then prime the system. it might take a little time. If using the starter, be sure not to use it to long then cool. Once it starts, decide if you are going to do the fix (check tech articles) before you fill it up. It is a lot easier to do with partial tanks than to have to drain them!!!!

 

[chris142]

Most dealers have a 10 yr cut off. Thats the norm around here anyway.

 

[cpdenton]

That would absolutely cause it to die like that. My truck has broken shower heads in both tanks. When it decided to stop sucking fuel, it's like you turned off the key. It happens a lot when going around turns or taking off from a stop. The fuel sloshes around and gets away from what's left of the pick up tube and you aren't going anywhere.

It takes a lot more cranking than you would think to get it to start back up too.

 

[Agnem]

Get yourself a new fuel filter and fill it with Stanadyne Lubricity additive (I sell both of those if you can't find it locally) then spin it on in place of the old one. Having the filter full of fuel will be the quickest way out of your obvious air gulp problem, and getting it started on lubricity additive with a new filter will get you ready for that fresh tank of fuel you need to fill.

 

[icanfixall]

Welcome to the forum...What Agnem posted is the best idea to get your engine running. The broken shower head is whats going on with your truck. At 1/4 tank the broken suction line can't suck any more fuel. So you run out of fuel at 1/4 tank. We all have had this problem. The front tank is the easy fix but the rear tank must be dropped or the bed pulled off to reach the electrical and the 2 fuel lines to the tank. Its best if you cut loose the supply and return lines on the fram cross rails before you try dropping the rear tank. That way you have more play in the lines to reach in to undo them from the sender. I didn't do that and broke my sender. Then it leaked and I had to drop the tank a second time. Not fun at all either. Careful dropping a tank with 1/4 level in it. The fluid will move around causing the balance to kick your butt. Just be sure to completely drain the tank before you try to install it. An mt tank is easier to install than a 1/4 full tank.

 

[darthj]

Good info, hopefully that's all that wrong, I'll give it a try as soon as I can get over there. I've got a bottle of ATF would it help to fill it with that before cranking/priming?
The dealership really surprised me too, they said that they had long since sold all the tools they used for the IDI's and that since they couldn't hook up a diagnostic machine to the truck they couldn't even try to figure out what the problem was.

 

[lindstromjd]

The dealership really surprised me too, they said that they had long since sold all the tools they used for the IDI's and that since they couldn't hook up a diagnostic machine to the truck they couldn't even try to figure out what the problem was.

Lol. What a bunch of *****. Anyone with any sort of mechanical ability (i.e. able to know what righty-tighty and lefty-loosey means) can figure out what's wrong with most IDI's.

The ATF will work, yes.

 

[Mulochico]

since they couldn't hook up a diagnostic machine to the truck they couldn't even try to figure out what the problem was.

Most "mechanics" these days (as well as trainers, etc) are "technicians". They are totally lost w/o the technology. A friend is a certified master mechanic (25+ yrs). He tells me all the time about the kids coming out of school, the "trainers" for the company he works for, etc who need the technology to even have a chance to diagnose a problem. He consistently fixes things quicker and more accurately w/o the "tools" that the others use. Even on the newer cars.

They all want to just plug it in then change the part the computer tells them to.

 

[darthj]

Well I finally got over to the truck, added about 4.5 gallons of fuel to it. When I pressed the schrader valve and cranked it the first time a stream of fuel came out. So I figured it must be getting fuel to the filter, tried cranking it for quite a while but it never came close to starting. All my tools are at my Mom's house so I'll have to get it towed there tomorrow and then I can try cracking the injector lines and see if that does it.

 

[icanfixall]

Any 5/8 open combo wrench will open the injecter hard nut nuts at the injecters. Even a crescent wrench will work for that. Buying a crappy harbor freight or japanese wrench will work in a pinch too.