Couple weeks back, wife and I drove the truck to a meeting and for some reason, the "check fuel cap" warning came on. No smells, not strong anyway, but everytime I started the truck that warning came on. I'ld puish the reset and clear it and next time, same same. Tried cap several times, still got the warning.

Next week we went out of town. Just got back last week, had a cold, and yesterday .... forgetting the warning, went up to start the truck and smelled fuel after I started it, but only after starting it. Warning came on again of course.

Well, I couldn't see any leaks hitting the ground, or falling from the truck. I was thinking maybe .... maybe need a new cap? Started out down the road, and fuel smell stayed strong being pulled in the vents but when I stopped and looked, no leaks?

I turned around and headed back home. Crawled under neath and looked her over with a light and mirror, looked up on top of tank after finally finding a faint trace of fuel on the side between the tank and frame rail.

Golly, found a 4" long spot in the top of the 1/2" OD Vapor line chewed open and a wet spot near a pair of teeth marks on the 3/8" OD high pressure line.

Today, I put the left wheels up on ramps, put truck in neutral with blocks and a set brake, removed neg batt cable at battery and marked the driveshaft at rear joint flange with paint and punch marks .... and then pulled driveshaft out for some room.

I found I could get under there and sit up with back to exhaust pipe as a rest and work OK. Pulled the high pressure line entirely and the vapor line was beyond just a simple splice so I cut it just behind the eat out place and removed the front portion.

I fixed the high pressure line simply by cutting it on either side of those teeth markks, about a 1/4 inch of line. Then I used a barbed splice from Advance Auto Parts about 3-1/2" long and got both parts of the high pressure line up on it to the stop point, which was about 1/4" wide anyway.

The vapor line, I had to make a splice using some 3/8" copper line and some compression rings slipped on and soldered to give the hose some "grip". I used two pieces for I knew getting it together and routed would be difficult under the truck. I was able to get one end into the remainder of the vapor line under the truck near 2 inches. The other I did in the basement. Under the truck, I then cut the two copper lines to match and joined with wa 3/8 compression coupling.

Then I returned the repaired high pressure line to the truck, fit perfect. It should be noted that I did wrap each of the 4 places where the plastic line is in place over the barbed or other line's "self made" bulges using compression ferrules, I wrapped with pieces of the same hard plastic slit on one side, then I applied a "fuel injection" type small clap up behind the barbs so no way they will ever come off unless cut off.

Fine now, I wrapped the repaired lines with some plastic split tubing and zip tied. Hoping squirrels leave it alone, but if it happens again .... I've decided I'll either replace or maybe replace with copper line all over top of tank on thsese lines.

Parts would have been $265 at Ford I was told.




Vapor line, damage is obvious:



High Pressure Line, damage is just to right of "MOTOR":

 

Oh yeah, reinstall driveshaft, applying locktite to the threads of the 4 bolts, same position as stock. Hook up battery, test drive, no warnings, no smells, no leaks .... I looked good with mirror and light again.

 

nice catch. my moms van just had the brake lines done for a leak and the leak was right above the gas tank.

i cant believe u didnt have more of a mess from the high pressure line. that hole looks big enough that it should have pissed out alot of gas.

 

And now it's time to be killin' some squirrels...

 

Darn squirrels...

 

hahahaha... that sucks

didn't you have a squirrel chew up something else recently? Maybe it was the same squirrel?

 

That's for sure!!!

 

Likely same clan, only have about 20-40 up there in the woods.

Yeah, warmer day after new years trip back home this past January I was reading the forum and threads about the Fuel Pump Driver Module and was looking for something to do, so I backed the truck up on my apron and dropped the spare and checked the FPDM.

I cleaned it, sanded the back, clear coated it several coats, and spaced it off the frame as a preventative measure. Then as I was plugging the wire harness in, suddenlt there was a broke wire as the strands pricked my finger. Looked close, squirrel had eaten al;most througgh one wire and chewed a bare spot in another. I did sonme splicing and fixed it and wrapped everything well ..... was glad to catch that just
looking".

This time, between the warning that was the result of the vapor line opened up and the fuiel line pricked leaking fuel and smelling it up, I had to find it.

Picked up a few items today including some copper tubing in a coil, next time I'll replace the fuel line with copper using just the ends of stock line. Normally that line is hanging under neath, hard for a squirrel to set there and chew. These lines are all on top of the fuel tank with 4-5" space overhead.

Also ....

I was wondering while under there how that fellow with the 08 drilled through the cab floor into his gas tank, it's several inches of space there!