Friday, July 14, 2006
All the fuel lines connected!
Whew.
I just tightened the last fuel line connection now. Not that the fuel system is all complete - I still have to reconnect the vent line on the fuel filler, wire up the fuel pumps, and put a bit of metal over the fuel lines where they cross under the parking brake cables so they don't wear out. But all the fuel lines are finally there. It looks like metal spaghetti in the area above the rear axle. But at least I was able to leave plenty of room for the axle to move around.
Putting the return fitting in the fuel tank was rather tricky, probably one of the hardest places I've found to get a wrench on (although the Focus cabin air filter box comes close). Drilling the hole was no problem, but once I had the bulkhead fitting through, I had to put a gasket and a nut on there. And I can only get two fingers through that sending unit hole.
As you may have guessed, I dropped the nut in there once. Had to get a claw tool and fish it out. Then I needed a tool that could fit in there to hold the nut while I tightened it down. Neither an adjustable wrench nor a normal ratchet wrench would be easy to manipulate. I finally stuck a U-joint on the ratchet wrench and bent it at a nearly 90 degree angle.
I feel like I'm really close to the time I can finally turn the key and see what happens.
I just tightened the last fuel line connection now. Not that the fuel system is all complete - I still have to reconnect the vent line on the fuel filler, wire up the fuel pumps, and put a bit of metal over the fuel lines where they cross under the parking brake cables so they don't wear out. But all the fuel lines are finally there. It looks like metal spaghetti in the area above the rear axle. But at least I was able to leave plenty of room for the axle to move around.
Putting the return fitting in the fuel tank was rather tricky, probably one of the hardest places I've found to get a wrench on (although the Focus cabin air filter box comes close). Drilling the hole was no problem, but once I had the bulkhead fitting through, I had to put a gasket and a nut on there. And I can only get two fingers through that sending unit hole.
As you may have guessed, I dropped the nut in there once. Had to get a claw tool and fish it out. Then I needed a tool that could fit in there to hold the nut while I tightened it down. Neither an adjustable wrench nor a normal ratchet wrench would be easy to manipulate. I finally stuck a U-joint on the ratchet wrench and bent it at a nearly 90 degree angle.
I feel like I'm really close to the time I can finally turn the key and see what happens.
Labels: Dodge Dart
