The other day my '96 1 ton wouldn't shut off. So I tried pushing the fuel shut-off solenoid linkage down by hand and I still couldn't get it to shut off. I ended up taking off the solenoid and I could then push the fuel shut-off linkage down far enough to kill the engine. The solenoid was dirty and the boot was totally rotted. I cleaned up the solenoid and fabricated a temporary boot from a bicycle tire tube and put it back together. I checked the solenoid out by plugging it back and turning the key on and off. It appeared to work fine. I put it back on..... Same problem, wouldn't shut off, even if I pushed by hand. So I figured it must have come out of adjustment somehow so I lengthened the adjustment screw screw on the solenoid, twice. It still won't shut off. I checked to make sure my temporary boot didn't limit travel. It doesn't.

Doesn't make sense to me. I can't imagine it going out of adjustment on it's own. I am wondering if the fuel shut-off mechanism somehow changed so you now have to move the lever further?

I am worried that a new solenoid won't work any different than my old one. All a solenoid can do is go in and out. So I am debating between going to install a hood latch, push pull manual system (which I am not excited about) or a new solenoid. Maybe I will order both. Usually takes a week for stuff to get here.

I need to use the truck between now and when the parts arrive to do either option. My question is that will it hurt or even work to run the truck with no solenoid on and the linkage just dangling free? I could come up with something to lock the linkage in place, but an easy way to do hasn't popped into my head yet. There seems to be significant resistance between "on" and "off", so I doubt it would shut itself off. But I have also been known to do stupid things, and I am afraid that driving the truck that way might be one.

 

Ok, I can answer my own questions now. After taking a break, I went out to work on it again. Lo and behold, as I was messing with it, the downstream linkage fell off the shaft as it comes out of the fuel body. Someone had probably worked on it sometime in the past and didn't tighten the pinch bolt adequately! That linkage had slipped out past the shaft's keyway and was not locked firmly to the shaft. So the problem is now fixed! I can see now that it wouldn't have been a big mistake to drive it with the solenoid removed. My linkage probably would have fallen off while I was driving and gotten lost forever. As it was it fell into a spot in the chassis that took me forever to find.

 

See there?...Another problem solved because we were too slow to answer, allowing you to figure it out by yourself...You're welcome......Ben