It's been a while since I wrote up my problem....but I got it all figured out. So, for anyone who might be suffering a similar predicament, here's what happened:
First, I had replaced fuel pump....but it didn't fix the problem. Then I replaced the sending unit. It fixed the problem for a day.....but then for some reason there was no fuel output.
I took off the new fuel pump and based on some marks on it i thought that it had somehow not been connected properly when I replaced it (since I barely have an idea about what I was doing). I checked the pump by pushing on the lever and it worked, so I re-installed it.
So then, I started checking the lines and when I disconnected the large fuel line (after cranking the engine a bunch of times) there was a fairly large "pop", almost like when you disconnect an air hose. So now I figure there is a blockage.
I really start looking and I used a mirror to check the hoses coming from the sending unit and discovered that the big hose had kinked slightly and it was just far enough for it to get pinched betweed the tank and the botton of a support member on the frame.
This happened because when I replaced the lines during the sending unit replacement I left them each about 1.5 inches longer than the original lines. It was the only way I could get them to reach when nhooking the tank back up.
So I dropped the tank, cut the lines to the correct length.....and then they couldn't reach the connections.
By this time I was really aggravated and made the decision to remove the bed so that I could hoog them up. The bed is in good shape, but the bolts were not. I ended up having to cut off 7 of the 8 bolts to get it off but I got it done and fixed the lines. I reinstalled the bed with new bolts and the truck is running great now.
Hopefully this story will help other novices like myself and save them a little aggravation too