F-150 dying question...

[dodge man]

I own a F150 although much newer. I’d guess the truck is a 1980’s or early 90’s truck. I know from being on the F150 forums it’s common the two tank setup has problems and it seems a lot of people give up on one of the tanks. I don’t know the cause or the solution though.

 

[metalbender]

Having worked in a Ford dealer from 84 to 98, the problem rings a bell. Unfortunately, my memory banks have been cleared of those not so fond memories. Plastic cannister with filter and switch over valve may be at fault.

 

[PuffyC]

Some things I'd ask are:

- How exactly does it die? Does it start sputtering then die or does it just turn off?
- Can you restart it immediately? If not, how long until it will start again?
- If it doesn't restart immediately, does it sound like it wants to start but can't, or does the engine just spin?
- If it doesn't restart immediately, is there something you can do to make it start, like maybe with starting fluid, etc?

If you've seen it die after a mile as well as after 100 I'd bet it's not a fuel problem. We had a couple older vehicles that did this exact thing and it was the ignition module. You might get 1 mile or you might get 100, and if you waited a while it would just magically restart as if nothing was wrong. Hot, cold, didn't matter - it was totally random.

 

[TractorGuy]

If it's old enough to have a distributor I would throw a cap and rotor at it. Have seen the distributor rotors open when they are hot.