Found On Road Dead, or the joys ex maintenance

[ol_ben]

Got a call at 7:30 Friday morning. Wife tells me the Ex up and died and is on side of the road 30 miles from home. No warning, no lights - just stopped running. I suspect Fuel pump. I go to rescue. Insurance company has towing, but only to closest Ford dealer which is even further away from home.

Dealer tells me standard analysis fee is $89. I reluctantly agree and go to work. In 45 min I get a call from dealer saying analysis indicated - surprise,surprise - a bad fuel pump and they could take care of it for a mere $985 .
I tell them no - I will send a tow truck to bring it home. Tow truck goes and gets it. I get home from work and find EX sitting in driveway.
I clean out garage( 3 hours) and have son and friend help push it in. I turn on the gas heater and go to bed.

The fun starts saturday morning. I go buy fuel pump and gas lone removal tool at NAPA. Jack up car and proceed to follow haynes manual and info located at Dead Link Removed

Unfortunately wife had filled tank up the day before. I was only able to pump out about three gallons. by early evening I had tank out and resting on the floor where I can work at it. The Lock ring holding the pump -sending unit assembly would not budge. I pried up 3 of 5 tabs and got the ring off.

Upon assembly removal and observation I notice the negative wire is not attached to the pump. The spade connector on the pump was misshapen and the female end on the wire was missing one side. It appears that when the unit was assembled only one side of the connector was placed over spade and after 148,000 miles the other side - barely toching - corroded away until there was no pressure and the connector came apart - A manufacturing defect!

12 volts applied to the pump confirmed it still worked but I put the new one in anyway.
The pump install began sunday But first I had to get the gas out of the tank. After filling 2 5 gal containers I tried to pour from 1 into a generator tank. Overflowed about a quart. As I continued it seemed if gas could spill it would spill. After much cleaning I reassembled the unit using a new gasket but the original locking ring. By late saturday afternoon I had the tank partially re-installed and the fuel lines reconnected. While putting the second safety clip on the fuel lines it sprang out of sight. After a half hour of looking I gave up and knowing the MLK holiday would give me anoyther day to complete- I quit. I was sore and tired from what seemed like 100's of trips under and out of the ex.

Put It all together Monday morning, pushed it out, put in about 4 gallons (taken out earlier) and it started right up. Drove to gas station and added 7 gal ( a little over 1/2 a tank.) Drove errands. every time I stopped and got out I could smell gas .

Well it looks as if I get to have all this fun again. Maybe I shouldn't have re used the locking ring. I will drive for the rest of the week then decide if to drop the tank again. Only good part it should go twice as fast owing to the knowledge gained from the recent experience.

What fun

-Ben

 

[Ray Lobato]

Well Ben,
If I have any problems or questions about my gas tank or fuel pump, I'll definately give you a holler, seeing that you have alot of practice getting one in and out. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Bill Kemp]

Thanks for the write up Ben.
I'm sure I had more fun reading it than you did doing it.
You get the satisfaction of saving over $800 though.
Treat yourself to something good......

 

[Teresa135]

My Dad just changed the Fuel pump in my Ex. He used the same website you did to figure out how to get to it etc..
My question to you is, I noticed you said that when you test drove it you could smell gas when you would stop and get out?? What causes that. I noticed that when I got out of my Ex this morning at work, that I could smell gas. Is this something that I need to be concerned about?

Teresa

 

[Alec]

Congrats (or...I'm sorry) on your job (hopefully) well done.

As for the gas smell, my truck smelled a bit for a few days after my mechanic changed my fuel pump. It went away after those few days. I decided it was any leftover gas around the install site that was getting vaporized by the heat of driving.

 

[Bigcheck1]

i guarantee i know where the smell is coming from , i just did the same thing and actually had to do it over. since i have a body lift i can see the locking ring in the top. thats where its leaking from. i know it. if you fill up the tank completely it will pour out the top. did u get a new locking ring and seal. i tried to use the old ring but the metal had worn off some that it doesnt seat right. the bad news is that you need to do it over again to replace the ring with a new one. hope this helps.

 

[ol_ben]

Every time I drive the X, The gas smell is there. It is not present if the engine is idling while the X is parked. My conclusion is verified by bigcheck1 that trying to re-use the original lock ring was a big mistake and that is where the gas is seeping from.

On Tuesday evening the X was slghtly rear edned by a toyota corolla. Little apparant damage to the X. The hitch plate was slightly bent down as were the bumper mounts. I took it to the insurance adjuster and tried to "pin" the gas smell on the accident. The adjuster noted it but did not allow any $ for it.

I had the bodyshop manager look and he doubted the gas smell was related as he'd seen significant more rear end damage on Xs with no gas problems and suggested I take it to service department to determine if it was accident related.

I concluded my work would be discovered and I would be charged for the inspection. So I decided to go ahead and fix the problem myself.

I proceded to the ford parts counter tp purchase a new lock ring and gasket ring. When the counter man brought out the parts, the lock ring appeared too large - about an inch larger in diameter than the rubber ring. When questioned the parts guy he said that insisted it wa correct and there were no other choices. I am faced with dropping the tank and bringing the ring in with the new one so the parts can SEE tthe difference.

So tomorrow evening - after I run the gas tank close to empty I intend to drop the tank and remove the lockring (unless another problem is the apparant culprit). bright and early saturday morning I will be back at the parts counter, with old and new in hand, (and probably a discusted look on my face) to obtain the proper part.

Is anyone aware of any type of sealant than can be used in this application?

If all goes well I will be back on the road Saturday afternoon.

This and all most other auto work will be so much easier if I ever install the lift filling the bed of my pickup.

I hope my next reply here is one expressing complete success.

-Ben

 

[mkcrawford]

What about JB Weld?? My dad fixed a small crack in the gas tank with it in a F150 and hasn't had any problems.

Just a thought

 

[Dan Whitaker]

I was just wondering why you didn't use an after market external electric pump lie a Holley or Edelbrock?

 

[mrboyle]

I'm not 100% sure on how you removed the lock ring from your description, but the way I read it, may be why you are experiencing the leak/smell. The way I read it, it sounds like you physically pried up the tabs that hold the ring in place. If so that isn't the proper way to remove the ring. The ring twists into place. To remove it you need to turn the ring using a hammer and punch. If you did in fact pry the tabs up it would be almost impossible to fold them back down tight enough to seal the lock ring. If this is what you did, all hope is not lost. You'll need to remove the tank again (but you already knew that), remove the ring and pump, fold the tabs back into place and then reinstall the pump and ring properly. Once the ring is installed properly there should be no need to use any sealant.

 

[ol_ben]

I removed the tank again on friday evening. Much easier to do the second time. The only part that was more difficult was removing the fuel lines (The effort bent the return line fitting - possibly causing the leak found below). The initial evidence of leakage appeared to be from around the vent area. It did not appear to be from the lockring.

I removed the old lockring and returned to the Ford dealer with it and the oversize one they sold me. They did not have the correct one in stock. Down the road to another Ford dealer. They had the lockring. I checked that the tank tabs I had bent previously to remove the lockring had been returned to their original position. Then cleaned and reassembled the fuel pump assembly using the new lockring.

I plugged and capped up all the openings in the tank and turned the tank sideways and partially upside down to check for leaks. The fuel return line was leaking where it entered the assembly. I have removed the assembly again and am faced with soldering the area or replacing the whole assembly.

As it sits right now the tank is on sawhorses awaiting a new or repaired assembly followed by continued leak testing.

In the mean time I installed an thermostadt and heater core (I hope this helps the low heat problem).

-Ben

 

[ol_ben]

Well, I went to the dealer and bought a complete fuel pump/sender assembly. I installed it with the new O ring it came with and the new lock ring purchased earlier. I still had all openings plugged and about 1 1/2 gallons of gas.

I turned the tank upside down and sloshed the gas back and forth. NO LEAKS after 5 minutes. The tank and skidplate are now re-installed but The X is still on jackstands while I install a remote starter and new front brake rotors.

It appears that the new fuel pump assembly has solved the problem. That leaves me with a spare fuel pump that has only pumped about 10 gallons through it.