Has anyone ever replaced one of these before? I pulled one off an '01 1500, which according to everything I can find online is the same as what is on my 2500. They even seemed identical holding them side-by-side.

The housing will attach to the truck and it will attach easily to the fill neck, however, when attached to the neck, it won't reach the truck and vice versa. You can see from my (poor) pics what I'm talking about and how there is about a 1"-2" gap. I'm sure I could secure it with zipties or the like, but I want it done correctly. Any advice anyone may have is greatly appreciated.



Red arrow points to new housing installed on fill neck, blue arrow points to side of truck behind fuel door

Gap between the housing and truck

Fuel fill neck

Gap between the housing and truck

1997 Dodge Ram 2500 12v Cummins

 

The closest I've come was detaching the filler mount from the bed quarter panel when I tilted the bed so I could replace my fuel-gauge sender, so admittedly my answer to your initial question is "no"... Are you using the original filler hose between the neck and tank, and are you sure you didn't push the new neck too far in (sorry for asking that, but just making sure)? From what I can see in the third pic, it doesn't look too far in - but it does look like you could pull it out some and move the hose clamp a bit closer to the end of the hose. If you haven't already tried this, I'd try loosening the hose clamp and maneuvering the neck up to the body and see if the neck stays far enough in the hose.

I searched Car-part.com for a fuel filler neck for a '97 2500 - the first search result I got was from a '01 gasser 2500, and the second was a '01 1500 4dr cab. Maybe the cab/bed lengths are a factor? You did say they looked identical, though...

 

Thanks, I'll give it a shot. It's probably my best bet at this point. I wasn't sure how far down the neck needed to be inserted into the hose in order to be safe, so I didn't want to mess with it until i ruled everything else out or someone could answer that for me.

To answer your question, yes, it is the original filler hose and no, I didn't push the new neck in too far because I never really did anything with it. What happened was when I went to fuel up, I opened the fuel door and saw the ground. The plastic housing had broken and the the neck had pulled out the back and was hanging under the truck. The plug of the fuel cap was still screwed in, but the handle was gone. I remember hearing it happen, but didn't see anything in the rear view and figured I'd hit a plastic bottle or something.

 

It wasn't clear from your original post that the plastic housing had broken. Now that you mention it, it may be visible in the first pic you posted. Have you been able to figure out anything further on this?

 

The broken housing was what caused the problem initially. I replaced it with a part I pulled from a 1500.

I've kind of fixed it. When I originally was trying to fix it, it was cold out and the hose wouldn't stretch much. After not getting any suggestions and getting fed up, I went out and tugged the hell out of it. I guess, because it was a much warmer day, the rubber hose was able to stretch a little more and I finally was able to get the screws in place to hold it. There is a lot of tension on it, but it works.

However, this is the new problem: I'm only able to get about 20-25 gal of fuel in the tank before it starts backing up in the fill tube. It will take more, but only if I pump at an extremely slow volume.

So if anyone has any thoughts on what could now be happening, I appreciate the advice in advance.

 

Possibly an obstruction in the vent tube - either in the replacement filler or the tank vent hose?

 

Did you get it sorted out? It sounds like your hose is still too far in the tank. I've been round and round with these over the years, don't see what ells it could be.