83 van fuel filter in gas tank?

look along the frame on your vehile for a LARGE FILTER .. Just follow the Gasline Back and you will find it..

He'll never find it that way dude. 83's are carbed, and the fuel filter is internal to the carb. Your method only applies to fuel injected (87 and later) vehicles.

To answer the OP's question, yes, the fuel tank sending unit does have a sock on the bottom of it to strain large debris, but this usually presents a problem when the tank is near empty, not full. Next time your truck runs out of gas with a full tank, unscrew the gas cap. If you hear a sucking noise when it loses it's seal and the van starts fine afterwards, you have a vapor locked tank and start looking at the EVAP lines and return line from carb.

Doc

thanks you both for the help when checking for another filter as santa said i found a electric pump that no longer being used the mechcancal looks new. The changes may be what doc is saying. that sock at the end of the pick up clogging was common problem on 20year old chevys when I was doing auto repair in the 70s telling me its there is a big help I was every low on gas before i filled up and the problem I thinking of running low air pressure backward to push dirt away from the sock