ran out of fuel yesterday

[anomad]

I was driving to North Pole yesterday to check out some trailers when the truck hiccuped and started to stall. I rolled to the shoulder and she laid down at an intersection.

Here's the deal. The sender/guage on my '95 has never worked. I have hand calculated the mileage for every tank for almost 5 years now. I had 350 miles on my trip meter and she was bone dry, I put in 36 gallons. The worst mileage I have ever seen is about 15 mpg, that included many hours of idling at very cold temps.

So where did that extra 15 gallons of diesel go??? My guess is it departed my tank when I left it parked at the office while I was gone on business. Might be time to invest in a locking gas cap. And, a good time to make sure I have my tool box and spare parts in the truck at all times.

The truck stalled on me this winter when it was cold and I first thought, crap, its doing it again. Luckily, this time, I stalled in the driveway of a heavy equipment mechanic that has a '93 cummins and seemed bored. We pulled off the fuel filter, drained it filled it back up, bled the injectors, it ran for 30 seconds and quit. Did this about 3 times, including pressurizing the tank with his compressor. Finally he took me to the gas station to try putting 5 gallons in the tank, after which it ran fine. I felt like an idiot and gave the nice gentleman 20 bucks for his help.