fuel pump died. advice for changing it?

**kawasaki_kid** · 07-29-2009, 08:01 PM

thats right, the fuel pump on my 98 died this past weekend. no big suprise, i figured it was coming, the fuel pump was louder then the truck at idle. i also figured if it aint broke dont fix it right? Of course it happend at the worst time. cruisin down the hwy from town back to the camp ground(about hour 25 mins from home) full of buddys. shamefully i took a tow from a ford back to a camp i used to work at near by. Of course i had just FILLED my truck like 4 miles down the road from where is stalled, so the tank is right full.

I decided to leave the truck at the camp(privately owned) and come back durring the week to fix it. I got my pump for 260 all said and done, pretty good deal i hear. now i just have to get back out to the camp to fix it.

Any advice for doing the swap? a guy from work is going to drive me, and help me with the work. (he just did the fuel pump in his silverado last week.) how many of you have had to change your fuel pump?

**bill190** · 07-29-2009, 08:06 PM

You said the right word in your post... "Buddys"!

Get about 4 of them and lift the pick-up bed off the truck rather than lowering the tank.

**tattooed4life** · 07-29-2009, 09:25 PM

I changed mine and it's not hard just a little messy and nothing is fun laying on your back for 90% of the work. Hopefully your tank is almost empty, that makes it alot easier. I wish mine was a truck cause I would have pulled the bed also to change the pump.

**Z71_guy** · 07-30-2009, 12:25 PM

easiest way without a hoist is to lift the box off and do it that way

**donl** · 07-30-2009, 03:03 PM

I have a friend who is an independent mechanic and he always lifts the bed off the pickup to change out the fuel pump.

**Superado** · 07-31-2009, 09:26 AM

done it several times by doing the following:
remove the 8 bolts holding the bed on
disconnect the tail light harness plugs
remove screws securing filler neck to fender
raise driver side of bed while someone else places a jack stand between frame and bed
make sure you get it high enough to be able to remove pump module assembly
inside of passenger fender should prevent bed from going any where by resting on tire

**Cfl383** · 07-31-2009, 10:48 AM

well mine hasent gone yet.. but i feel it coming. my friend has replaced his a few times and co we just cut a hole in the bed right above the pump and reg. and it made it extremly easy... when we were done we bolted a piece of dimond plate over the hole... all in all worked out pretty well lol cuz we already had to use it after we made the hole... the hole is prob 1ft.x1ft.

**kawasaki_kid** · 07-31-2009, 08:39 PM

well i ended up lifting the box off. that didnt take long, the hardest part was getting the fuel lines off without the tool. to put the box on we grabbed a loader. and hung the box about half an inch off the mounts. I did it this way because i have a body lift, and so i thought it would be very hard to line up all six bolts and blocks. It was pretty easy to line up doing it the way i did. strange thing though, since changing the pump, my dash lights come on whenever i touch the breaks with just the running lights on. the rest of the lights work fine.

**zubbiez** · 07-31-2009, 10:00 PM

of course Its always nice when you have a spare loader lying around

**retired2001** · 08-01-2009, 12:00 AM

A friend of mine decided that since he was planning on keeping his truck till it wouldn't go anymore that he would just cut a hole in the bed above the fuel pump and just put a hinge on the piece he cut out. That way the next time it would be quicker. Worked real well!