Yesterday I changed the fuel filter on my '96. At the same time I unplugged the electrical connection from the fuel heater/prefilter. Fuel started to come out form the connection so I assume the heater is bad and that may have something to do with my cold morning starts (that is another issue).
I buttoned everything back up and fired up the truck, after priming the heck out of it via the primer on the lift pump. All was good.
Not really. Now I seem to have some sort of loss of prime issue. The truck is very hard to start after is sits for a couple hours. I checked the fuel pressure via the bleed bolt on top of the filter housing and I'm getting 11-14 psi at idle (and the overflow valve was replaced about 8 months ago, pressure at that time was 22-24 at idle).
I was originally thinking I somehow messed up a fuel filter change, but now I am lead to believe the lift pump just took a dump
There has been a slight amount of fuel around the primer button for about the last 25k miles, but it never affected anything before. I don't think a faulty fuel heater element could have an affect on the fuel pressure as it is before the lilft pump and it is not leaking unless the plug is removed.
Sorry to be so long winded, I just wanted to include all the details.
What do you think? Would you agree the lift pump is the culprit?
Thanks for the help,
Ryan