Okay, 1996 f150 XLT with 5.0 and duel tanks............
i have spent HOURS looking online and Everytime I get close to an answer someone jacks the tread to talk about another topic or they start talking about an older model truck or someone references a Dodge and the tread dies. If you do this have any useful information or a valid question please don't post on this thread. Thank you.

We bought a 96 f150 XLT 3 years ago and now we are having problems. The fro t tank has never worked since we bought the truck. No sound from front pump and when we flip the switch we get absolutely nothing. Sometimes the truck will not start or it will start and act like it is starving for fuel, have to pump the pedal and after about ten pumps it will usually pick up but not always. Sometimes it does this on cold start but usually when we run in the store, come out to go home and truck will not start. Have had to use ether to finally get it started after about 15 minutes of trying. It usually smells like either REALLY strong gas or oil. It stalled the other day for the first time on the off ramp after about 40 miles of driving with no problems. The problem is getting worse. Then this morning it stalled on cold start when put in reverse, put truck back in park then started with no problem.

This is our only vehicle so can't pull apart and run to parts store so trying g to figure out what is wrong before disassembling the truck. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

Have you changed the fuel filter? That's a good place to start. Next you would want to do a fuel pressure test on it. You can get loaner gages from the parts store and you don't need to take anything apart to test the system.

When it won't start try turning the key to the on position for 5-10 seconds, turn it back to off about the same amount of time, then repeat turning it to on one more time. After the second cycle of the key in the on position (not start) THEN crank it to start. This will help "prime" the system if you have a marginal amount of fuel pressure.

This is not a fix, but I hope that helps. Good luck.

 

We have not tested the fuel pressure but when you check the bleeder valve it dribbles and usually seems like there is a lot of air. Have tried the key "trick" to prime the system and that has never seemed to help. If you let the truck sit for about 20 minutes and "cool down" from normal running temp it will start right up with no problem.
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You need to test it - that doesn't sound good. You should have about 40 psi in there.

Repeat question - fuel filter?

 

Fuel filter gets changed when we change the oil.