I just bought a Ranger on Saturday, and today at the gas station I filled it up to the top and the gas attendant told me I was leaking gas everywhere. It was running off the side of the tank pretty bad but by the time I got home it stopped. I read that it usually stops leaking once its no longer full, and not to fill it to tje top, but this problem is obviously very unsafe and I'm not going to drive it until I get it fixed.

Various searches say the filler neck tube. I heard this is an expensive part, and not that easy to find. I also heard it could be the actual tank, and that would really suck.

I expected a 17 year old truck to have some things wrong with it, but come on. Not only did I not have the truck a week, this thing could have killed me!

 

It is the filler tube, not that expensive, $50-$75, you can spend up to $190 if you want, but this is not a Ford OEM required part, IMO.
Make sure you get the right one for your model and bed style

You can replace it without removing the bed, but you need small hands.

You could unbolt the bed(6 bolts), and unscrew the 3 filler screws and then jack up(lift) the bed on the filler side(not too high, watch tail light wires) and put a block of wood in to hold it up, then jack up the truck to work under it, jack stands please, lol.


On another note, the EVAP system puts negative pressure in the fuel tank to prevent gas fumes from polluting the air, so with a hole in the filler tube you should get a CEL(check engine light), which you didn't mention.

Since you just bought this truck I am wondering if CEL has been disconnected(bulb pulled)
Does the CEL come on when key is first turned on and then go off?

 

The engine light is functional. I even brought a scanner with me when I bought it and no codes came up. The scanner would have told me if he cleared it recently . I will look at the tube this weekend.

 

Yea, I had a 93 ranger back in 2008 that did the same thing. I was living in Berkeley, and didn't have a place to work on it, plus I have never dropped a gas tank, so I was a little intimated. However, every time I went to fill up with gas, I would top it off and see the gas splash out from underneath the vehicle. It did this for a little while, so I finally took it in to figure out what it was. Cost me close to $400-500 to get repaired. Yea, he said Ranger's were notorious for this and Ford sure was proud of its filler neck (expensive). So I am assuming you are having the same problem as Ron suggested. I now have a 2000 ranger, and will be watching out for it if it happens again.

I don't think I ever had a check engine light come on with this problem. I know I never had check engine light problems with my 93 ranger.

 

look on Amazon for the filler neck. I bought a brand new Motorcraft a while back for $50.