96 ford ranger, 3.0L 5 speed

I just relocated my fuel tank 2 weeks ago, I've run 3 full tanks of gas through it with no problems. I was cruisin yesterday and my truck sputters and dies. I've had my fuel line come off my fuel filter before and this is exactly how it acted. crawled under and didn't see any fuel leaks. when I turn my key the fuel pump wines so I know it's working. my fuel filler hose runs up into my bed, uncoverred so I thought maybe I got some water in my tank. picked up a bottle of HEET, dumped it in there and still wouldn't start. had a buddy tow my into town, then tried jump starting it, nothing. it'll turn over and fire while the starter is turning but never catch and stay running. any ideas?

well I just put in a new fuel filter and after a lot of tries it started for a little bit. had a super eratic idle. it fired and jumped up to 1800 which is normal for when its cold then it dropped down to less than 500 then would pick back up to 1500 or so then drop back down and hover around 500 till it died. seemed like me giving it gas would flood it out and kill it. checked air filter and it's all good. I'm lost.

if you raised your tank up, alot of times the intank fuel pump cant handle the load. its better to get an inline one.

how is it any different? I switched to a factory ranger tank that mounts behind my rear axle. had to shorten my pump ~4" to make it fit. I guess I'll pull my bed off tomorrow and make sure the filter on the pump isn't full of crap, then see if everything's getting fuel.

Have you checked your sharder vlave?
You need 40PSI of pressure, a bad pump (one that is loud) is often on its way out, or bad. Having low pressue like 20psi would cause hard/no starts and poor idle.

Quit guessing. Put a fuel pressure guage on it.

Does it have spark?

I've had the rubber cover on the in tank pump come off and plug the line. Best bet is to start at the source and work your way foward.

I got a pressure guage and checked it at the shrader, 0psi. pulled the pump and one of the hoses slid off somehow. I flared the tube, slid the hose back on and tightened as tight as the clamp would allow. problem solved. thanks for the insight guys

I would pull the sender pump back out of the tank and check everything. I have had the pickups fall off before. Makes the fuel starve when it falls below qtr tank.