97 fuel filter housing help please

I drained my fuel filter housing to clean the screen today and think I may now have a problem.

I removed the filter and noticed the disk that the filter sits on was covered with black junk so I wiped it with a wad of paper towels. On this disk is a circular copper wire that appears to be attached (or appears to be SUPPOSED to be attached) to 3 little disks. Mine is attached to one disk that is also attached to the platform disk. The second is not attached to anything and is loose from its apparent spot. The third disk is still attached to the wire but not the platform disk.

-mad -mad

What is this and what, if anything, do I need to do about it?

I have 2 digital pictures I can post but no way to resize them first. Im sitting in the living room now afraid to continue until someone lets me know what Ive done.

Thanks!

Peter

the disk is the fuel heater. just unplug the 2nd on drivers side connector on the side of the housing as not to blow fuse 22(then no start). the connector should be kinda square.

been running without my heater since november with no problems and i dont think you will have any either since you live farther south than me.

hope this helps

Rob

Im gonna go look at see. Does the entire disk come out? I thought it looks like it supports the filter. Once unplugged, how do I remove it?

Thanks!

photos

I have uploaded some pictures to my yahoo. click my sig link and there is an album called Fuel Filter Housing. The 3rd picture is looking from the top down and has an arrow to a rectangle plug.

Is that the one to unplug? Then what do I do? Another question, once I remove the heater, do I replug that plug back in? I am completely unfamiliar with this and need some step by steps.

Thanks again.

I believe you can unplug it from the inside if you are going to take the fuel heater out. the stand pipe(LEFT HAND THREADS) takes a 7/8 crows foot wrench to take it out. I've had mine unpluged for 3 years.

I have called every ford dealer within 25 miles and noone has a new heater. I am content simply unplugging it so now my next questions -

- can I simply unplug the spade terminal inside and leave it all where it is?

- If i can leave it where it is, can/should I snip off the loose copper wire?

- If I remove it, what supports the filter or does it matter?

one more -
- If I remove it, is it as simple as taking it out and putting the filter back in with no other changes?

Thanks for helping!

I have mine unpluged on the outside where your arrow in the pic points to.If you go that route put some black tape around the loose connector so it doesn't short out and blow the #22 fuse.Then when you get a new heater (if you do)just plug it back in.I don't think the filter is supposed to rest on the heater but im not sure.

Others have taken out the heater and run without it.

unplug it from the outside and yes the arrow is pointing to the right one.
stand pipe is LEFT hand threads 7/8" crows foot to take out.

i left mine in and just unplugged.i think the filter bottoms outs on the stand pipe and not the heater so if you want to remove i think you will be ok.

Rob

Ok, I have the heater out. No replacement parts available so planning on just doing without for now. I began to think the filter might bottom out on the standpipe. I simply unplugged from the inside and left the outside plug as is. Is that ok?

The whole purpose of this little exercise was to see if the regulator screen needed to be cleaned (never has been). So now that I have a totally empty housing, how do I get to the screen. I found some instructions but they seem to be aimed at the SD.

Thanks for the help to the technically challenged.

Anyone wanna now point me to how to do the screen? Im sure it is already written up around here so a link is fine.

Thanks again.