I knew we were living on borrowed time. GMC pickups made in the late '90's to early 2000's are notorious for having their fuel pumps puke out around 70-90 thousand miles. My faithful black truck has 213,000 so we knew it was inevitable. Last week it sputtered and stopped in Loma when Grant was coming home. It cost $200 to haul the truck back to town, but at least he wasn't stranded out in the middle of nowhere.
Replacing the fuel pump on these models isn't exactly a quick fix, but Grant wasn't concerned (this is the man who put power brakes and steering in Frankentruck, and finds it no big deal to replace an engine). The only problem is he had to remove the bed of the truck to reach the fuel tank. (Way to think it out GM engineers!) A friend came over to give us a hand, but it was still a goat rope. Our dog was barking at the neighbor's dog, Sam was standing right behind the , and I fell backwards on top of a straw bale as I held up my end. Sam's crying, I'm yelling at him to stay out of the way so he wouldn't be hurt, and the truck bed is resting on my leg. I still have a bruise.
Once we got it off, it went smoothly for Grant. He pulled out the old pump, rewired the harness and set in the new one. His brother and nephew came by the next day to help put the bed back on. Even with the $200 tow bill and $320 for the new fuel pump, it still saved us at least $500. The black truck is back in business.
