KaiserM715
Kaiser Söze
I had been noticing some issues with the spring loaded mechanism on my fuel door and finally got around to fixing it. After doing some research, I came upon a solution. This is somewhat of a common problem and the F150 Forum had a solution: Fuel Door Problem - Page 2 - Ford F150 Forum - Community of Ford Truck Fans . I thought that write-up lacked some details, so here is the full story of how I fixed mine.
Tools:
This is what we start with:
The first step is to unbolt the filler neck from the fuel door. The trim ring snaps off of the filler neck, which gives access to the bolts (I am pretty sure this is missing on Wilson's truck
).
I don't have any pics of the next steps as I didn't have enough hands. The door assembly snaps into the opening in the fender in four places. The two towards the rear of the truck are the ones to get loose first. I stuck my hand up in between the bed and the fender and was able to get one of them loose. This allowed me to stick one of the screwdrivers in the gap. Adding in the second screwdriver, I worked the pair around the perimeter, prying gently as I went. Once it finally popped loose, I worked the door assembly out of the fender and off of the filler neck.
This is the issue (it is out of focus, sorry about that) - the two red lines are supposed to be together:
The hinge pin worked itself upwards. The hinge pin and the door pivot are keyed to each other. When the pin worked itself upwards, they became disconnected from each other, allowing the door to swing freely as it was disconnected from the spring.
Here is a view of the slot in the door pivot:
This shows the rotating surfaces of the pin and the keyed section:
My solution was to use the Dremel to cut the bottom hinge boss (refer to the third pic) in half. This would allow me to install a washer and retainer pin - which will prevent the hinge pin from working itself out of the bore. I test assembled everything and then measured where to drill the hole for the retainer. I cut a length off of a large paper clip and bent it into a "Z" shape.
The solution:
Then I put it all back together. Good as new. Rumor is that the bucket and hinge is $130 and about $60 for labor (note: I did not verify part prices). That is pretty good savings for 30 minutes, a washer and a paper clip.
Tools:
- Ratchet with an 8mm socket (I also used a long extension to keep from banging the fender)
- Two flathead screw drivers with the tips wrapped in electrical tape (to protect the paint on the fender)
- Dremel tool with plastic cut-off wheel
- Small drill bit
- Small washer (I had one in my parts bin)
- Needle nose pliers
- Side cutters
- One large paper clip
This is what we start with:
The first step is to unbolt the filler neck from the fuel door. The trim ring snaps off of the filler neck, which gives access to the bolts (I am pretty sure this is missing on Wilson's truck
).I don't have any pics of the next steps as I didn't have enough hands. The door assembly snaps into the opening in the fender in four places. The two towards the rear of the truck are the ones to get loose first. I stuck my hand up in between the bed and the fender and was able to get one of them loose. This allowed me to stick one of the screwdrivers in the gap. Adding in the second screwdriver, I worked the pair around the perimeter, prying gently as I went. Once it finally popped loose, I worked the door assembly out of the fender and off of the filler neck.
This is the issue (it is out of focus, sorry about that) - the two red lines are supposed to be together:
The hinge pin worked itself upwards. The hinge pin and the door pivot are keyed to each other. When the pin worked itself upwards, they became disconnected from each other, allowing the door to swing freely as it was disconnected from the spring.
Here is a view of the slot in the door pivot:
This shows the rotating surfaces of the pin and the keyed section:
My solution was to use the Dremel to cut the bottom hinge boss (refer to the third pic) in half. This would allow me to install a washer and retainer pin - which will prevent the hinge pin from working itself out of the bore. I test assembled everything and then measured where to drill the hole for the retainer. I cut a length off of a large paper clip and bent it into a "Z" shape.
The solution:
Then I put it all back together. Good as new. Rumor is that the bucket and hinge is $130 and about $60 for labor (note: I did not verify part prices). That is pretty good savings for 30 minutes, a washer and a paper clip.
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