I have a 1986 F-150 with 48,000mi and it was running great then one day it started sputtering and I made it to a garage. They changed everything under the hood and it got me back home (2mi) then started the same thing. They say they changed the fuel filter but they didn't change the paper element filter thats in front of the high pressure pump. When I checked it you couldn't even blow air through it. I change the paper filter but still the motor won't start. If I spray ether in the intake it will fire up for a minute but then cut off.

Today I turned the ignition switch on and off to prime the system but the paper element and the bowl never got any gas in it. The high pressure pump sounds like its running fine when I switch it on and off.

I'm wondering if the low pressure pump in the tank burned up from trying to force gas through a paper filter that was completely clogged.

There seems to be no gas at all coming from the front tank.

Does anyone have any suggestions of what it could be or do you think that it is the pump inside the tank? Like I said, when I spray ether in the intake it fires and runs for a few seconds but then cuts off for the fact there is no gas going to the injectors.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

BTW,

I pressed the reset button under the dash but it didn't work.

Many Thanks
Alan

 

Does it do this on both tanks, or just the front? If it's just the front, I'd guess it's the in-tank fuel pump.

 

Hi,

The rear tank quite working years ago. The truck was running great then all of a sudden it started sputtering and just quit running. I have been tracing down the trouble with the help of the online pros and we think its either the selector switch or the low pressure pump in the front tank. I took the lines off today that come from the front tank to the manual fuel selector bowl, where the paper filter is. I switched the ignition on and off about 12 times and I only got just a tiny bit of gas out of the intank pump.

I've been told now to ground pin 6 on the ECC connector under the hood and switch it on for 5 seconds and I should get about 6oz of fuel in 5 seconds. If not I probably have a bad in tank pump. I'm going to try that tomorrow. I was also told it could be the front/rear switch on the dash, but until I see 6oz of gas in 5sec its a mute point to test the switch..

Any more help would be very appreciated.
Alan

 

If the rear tank hasn't worked in years, you probably haven't flipped the switch in years either. Seems odd that the switch would fail without use. My money is on the in-tank fuel pump.

 

I second the intank pump.