Guess I Should Laugh...but I don?t want to.

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
P

Pilothawk

Active member
Joined
Apr 21, 2018
Posts
30
The day finally arrived.  Going to bring my camper home.  Insurance and check in hand.  What a thorough and complete job my dealer did.  I was made to feel like family despite my questions.  Great people.

I left the dealership to head home.  A mile down the road I had to turn left.  As I began to accelerate the truck began to shake and buck like a stallion on crack.  50...45...40...35...30 mph.  Foot on the floor...truck will not go.  I?m on the by pass, cars buzzing by, and I?m dead in the water. 

Called deal...he got a truck there within ten minutes.  Camper is safe...call local ford place.  They say there is a chance they can get to me a week from Friday.

Argh...what to do?  I tried to drive it.  It got up to 55mph.  Great...I?ll try to limp home.  I was doing ok until I got to a hill.  It just slowed down and began bucking again.  Gotta quit now.  Ford dealer in my home town sent his tow truck. 

Camper is at the dealers.  Truck is in the shop.  Yes...an RV is a ticket to adventure.  My first RV adventure did not last even one and one half miles...

...it?s hard to laugh.

 
If it wasn't for bad luck you wouldn't have any luck at all!!!

A little more info on the truck....gas, diesel? What year? 

A week from Friday???? Mighty kind of them.
 
Truck is a 7.3 liter Ford diesel. 

I believe the under Valve cover harness is out.  If so...this will be the third time.  Symptoms are familiar. 
 
Sounds like a clogged fuel filter.  Lets enough fuel through to let the engine run OK under a light load, then starves it when you need more fuel to accelerate, climb a hill, etc.
 
I never understood why they ran there injector harness in the valve covers. I have replaced the solenoids on top of motor also going to harness. That usually won't start and run at all though. I would have changed filter first.
 
Ford dealer called. 

Said I was out of fuel....even though gauge read 1/4 tank and the low fuel light never came on.  Ford wants 1100 dollars to replace the sending unit.

I?m not convinced.  After the dealer picked up the camper, I drove for six more miles prior to flameout. 
 
I think I'd go pick it up, fill it up and see what happens. 

You can live without a sending unit for a long time or at least until you know the sending unit is bad.

 
I wonder if they got the fuel pickups reversed (Generator/Main Engine) normally the Generator runs out of fuel at .... 1/4 tank.

Oh unless the pick up is dead center in the tank (Rare) you will be able to drive quite some distance on either an UPward or DOWNward grade after you run out on the other direction. .
 
John From Detroit said:
I wonder if they got the fuel pickups reversed (Generator/Main Engine) normally the Generator runs out of fuel at .... 1/4 tank.
Click to expand...

OK, I'll bite.  Why would a truck have a generator fuel pickup in it's fuel tank?    :eek:
 
Well, what really happened is not what they originally thought. 

The fuel pickup broke.  There is a cute little pick assembly in the fuel tank that comes as a unit....$1100.  It has not just the pickup, but a pusher pump to move the fuel to the engine.

Argh....an expensive day.
 
The problem is not as unusual as I thought.  The pickup itself is a hard plastic that joins a different piece that flares out and has a screen in it .  Apparently, this piece breaks off and just lays there in the tank.  Problem happens when fuel is lower than 1/4 full.  In some cases the broken part become brittle, disintegrates, and since there is no longer a screen, little pieces go clog the fuel filter...or worse, the injectors.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,545 (members: 19, guests: 1,526)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,974
Posts
1,388,528
Members
137,723
Latest member
CarlSpackler
Back
Top Bottom