Finally got it off the trailer this morning. Vacuum gauge showed 20in when it first started (idles high for a couple of seconds) then drops down to just above 15in and holds there until it starts to die.

 

So what ever happened to this? Did you fix it? What did it end up being? Talk about a 2.5 year cliffhanger!

 

He hasn't been back since 8-15-16, so, don't expect an answer.

 

Wow, yeah, I'd totally forgotten about this thread. IIRC it ended up being that the barb on the inside of the sending until, that the fuel pump pushes through, was cracked. It seemed fine while passing fuel through an open line into a bottle, but when under pressure it was spraying out inside the tank. I discovered after again lifting the bed and partially pulling the whole sending unit, had my wife turn the key while I watched and fuel went everywhere. I'd pulled the cap again and turned the key in earlier that day and could hear a whooshing sound inside the tank, which is what lead me to suspect that it was bypassing.

I ended up epoxying in a steel line through the sending unit and clamping inside and outside hoses. I think I drove it for about a year after that with zero further issues, ended up getting rid of the super duty and picking up an Avalanche, needed more room for kids in the back seat. Since the Av gets nearly the same mpg as I was getting with the old Dakota, I ended up selling it to a work aquaintance who is still happily driving it

 

Email notifications are a wonderful thing. Thanks for coming back with an update.

 

Indeed. Hopefully having the full story can help someone else in the future.

 

Nice! We have closure on this one now -- this is tremendously helpful! Glad you got it figured out -- talk about a low-odds problem; you had to do some real detective work on this one. Thanks for the closure.