tedallen
Active Member
The original fuel pump failed in my 97 Expy failed at 301,142 miles. Fortunately, it decided to do so in my driveway a couple of weeks ago. I finally got around to working on it yesterday. I dropped the tank (fought with the rubber fuel filler hose and a couple of emission hoses on the tank as well as the "quick" disconnect on the larger fuel line connection at the pump).
I replaced the entire pump hanger assembly (had to reuse the sensor in the top of the hanger assembly) with an aftermarket Airtex pump from Advance Auto Parts. The reassembly went relatively smoothly. However, after priming the pump with a few cycles of the ignition, I attempted to start the vehicle and the engine would start to turn over and stop, almost like a problem with the starter or insufficient charge or heaven forbid something in the engine trying to seize.
I called a couple Ford service departments to see if they thought anything I could have touched in replacing the fuel pump could cause this behavior and they said no.
After a while of fighting this, it finally turned over and started, but an unusual amount of white smoke was coming out of the tail pipe. I thought this could be from oil leaking past the valve stem seals while sitting that long, but there was a bit of an odd odor to it.
I then took it for a drive and a mile or so into the drive the smoke coming out of the tailpipe appeared to clear up. Unfotunately, after going about 10 miles or so (which inlcuded a fill-up with non-ehtanol gas), the CEL came on. The engine didn't seem to be running rough. When I got home, I checked and it was a P1131 Ford manufacturer specific code.
One of the potential causes for this is low fuel pressure. I'm really hoping I don't have to siphon out 20+ gallons of fuel and drop the darn tank again for a defective Airtex fuel pump.
If anyone has any thoughts as to what I might check first, I'd greatly appreciate any ideas.
Thanks,
Ted
I replaced the entire pump hanger assembly (had to reuse the sensor in the top of the hanger assembly) with an aftermarket Airtex pump from Advance Auto Parts. The reassembly went relatively smoothly. However, after priming the pump with a few cycles of the ignition, I attempted to start the vehicle and the engine would start to turn over and stop, almost like a problem with the starter or insufficient charge or heaven forbid something in the engine trying to seize.
I called a couple Ford service departments to see if they thought anything I could have touched in replacing the fuel pump could cause this behavior and they said no.
After a while of fighting this, it finally turned over and started, but an unusual amount of white smoke was coming out of the tail pipe. I thought this could be from oil leaking past the valve stem seals while sitting that long, but there was a bit of an odd odor to it.
I then took it for a drive and a mile or so into the drive the smoke coming out of the tailpipe appeared to clear up. Unfotunately, after going about 10 miles or so (which inlcuded a fill-up with non-ehtanol gas), the CEL came on. The engine didn't seem to be running rough. When I got home, I checked and it was a P1131 Ford manufacturer specific code.
One of the potential causes for this is low fuel pressure. I'm really hoping I don't have to siphon out 20+ gallons of fuel and drop the darn tank again for a defective Airtex fuel pump.
If anyone has any thoughts as to what I might check first, I'd greatly appreciate any ideas.
Thanks,
Ted
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