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1997 Fuel Sending Unit

1833 Views 9 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  madpogue, 
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I'm sure this has been discussed in here but I have a 1997 F250 7.3 and I am having an issue with the truck idling rough and then it runs out of fuel. When I open the fuel bowel, there is no fuel. I know the 2000 model has two screens in the sending unit that usually get dirty and then they have poor performace. Does my 97 have the same sending unit with the screens? I am assuming this is why my truck idles rough and then cuts out. No fuel due to dirty screens.... Can some one verify my suspicion or am I wrong?

Don't want to drop the tank if I don't have those screens. Also, I have a full take of diesel!
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M
Yeah, we have the same screens ("showerheads") on the pickup tubes (the sending unit is for the gauge), or similar ones anyway. What usually happens is that the screen breaks or falls off, so the pickup tube only reaches down to about the 1/4 tank level. So the truck runs out of fuel at 1/4 tank. Is this happening on both tanks?

The other possibility is that a piece of the broken strainer has been pulled up through the pickup tube, and has lodged in the selector valve.
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M
Did the strainer indeed fall off? If so, and it sucked anything up, as mentioned it's probably lodged in the selector valve.
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^^^^^ Most likely fuel line restriction would be foreign matter pulled up from the tank, lodged in the selector valve. If I were to use compressed air to blow the lines, that's where I'd start.

But trying two pumps does NOT eliminate the pump. Only if either/both pumps had been proven working in another truck would that be true. Another way to narrow it down would be to disconnect the inlet to the first stage of the fuel pump, and feed the truck from a jerry-can of fuel, see if it stays running that way.
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