HOW TO--Fuel line replacement, FI Bus After a rash of "burning bus" stories, I finally buckled down and replaced all the fuel lines in my 1976 bus, determined not to let my bus meet its end as a result of old, cracked, or loose fuel lines. It wasn't all that hard. And to make it really easy for you, I'll tell you exactly what you need, and how to do it. Do yourself a favour, and replace the fuel lines in your bus this weekend. It might save your bus. And it might save you or someone in your family from getting hurt. Caveats: -------- I'm not a professionally-trained mechanic. Don't trust me blindly here. If something seems odd or potentially hazardous, stop and think about it. Use your head: you're working with gasoline. This is the procedure for a stock 1976 fuel-injected 2.0L bus. It should be pretty much the same for all 1975 - 1979 buses. 1980 - 1983 1/2 air-cooled Vanagons are likely very close, with the exception of a different fuel tank location, so you'll need more fuel line. Water-pumper Vanagons are probably pretty similar to what I describe, but again, you'll need more fuel line. Eurovans are, of course, completely different. This procedure will replace the fuel lines. Filler neck and other gas-fume sources are not covered here, so if fumes persist after doing this procedure, keep looking for the source of the smell. Do not ignore gas fumes. Stuff you will need: -------------------- A fire extinguisher. Don't even think of starting this job without one right beside you at all times. Don't get casual with gasoline--there are more than a few list members with sad stories of buses that burned while they were working on them. I know at least one that nearly lost his house in the process. A set of jack stands if you're not skinny enough to easily crawl around under the bus without raising the vehicle. I don't need 'em, but then again I could stand to put on a few pounds. Do not work under a bus that is jacked up without jackstands!! A good-sized (say, 6 gallon) jerry can. A trouble lamp or small flashlight. A pair of vise-grips. WD-40, rags, goggles, grubby clothes, handcleaner, and all the usual wonderful acutrements for working on cars. 10' of 5/16" high-pressure fuel infection fuel line. Be sure you get high pressure line!! 1' of 1/2" fuel line. You don't need high pressure line, but I used high pressure line anyway. Lots of small (#4) hose clamps. You'll need at least 21. These are for the 5/16" line, so check them out for fit with the hose before you leave your FLAPS. 2 hose clamps the next size up for the 1/2" hose. A 1/4" open/box-ended wrench so you can get at the hose clamps sideways easily. A set of seals for the fuel injectors. You will need one large and one small seal for each injector. I didn't replace the one for my cold-start injector, so I don't know if it's any different from the others. I got a set for the 4 injectors for $8.00 CDN from my friendly mechanic (Vancouver West Motors in Vancouver, and yes, that's a shameless plug.) A variety of flat-head screw drivers. A phillips head screw driver for the clamp holding the air filter housing to the air intake sensor. A 10mm wrench for the nuts holding the fuel injectors to the intake manifold. Splurge and get yourself a new fuel filter. Procedure: ---------- You'll want to do this with only a few gallons of gas in the tank. Find a dry, level, well-ventilated place to park the bus. Give yourself the day to do the job, so you won't feel rushed. 1) Aquaint yourself with the situation: Get under the bus and find the fuel pump and filter. They'll be on the left side of the bus, just forward of the rear wheel. Follow the fuel line from the filter, back over the transmission, and up to the underside of the fuel tank just to the right of the transmission. There are two fuel lines attached to the tank, see? One goes to the fuel filter and pump, the other is the return line from the motor. The fuel system is a loop, so unused fuel gets put back in to the fuel tank via the return line. Go back to look at the pump. Notice that the hose used to connect the filter to the pump is bigger than the rest. Follow the line from the pump back towards the engine. It disappears through the firewall on the left side of the engine compartment. Get up and go to the back of the bus. Remove the air cleaner. The rear part of it just pops off with a system of clips--it's quite simple, so I won't explain it here. Remove the air cleaner snorkel from the air intake sensor by loosening the phillips head clamp that holds it on. Set all the air cleaner stuff aside. Remove the engine compartment cover, and look inside. On the far outsides of the motor, nearly on the bottom of the engine compartment, are some fuel hoses that connect to a metal tubing piece, and that run to the injectors (the things with the blue push-on plugs attached to them). On the rear end of these metal tubes, a fuel hose runs up to the center rear of the engine (to the cold-start injector), then over to the other side, where it attaches to the rear end of a tube on the opposite side. This ring of fuel lines around the engine is called the "ring main" or fuel ring. The fuel enters the engine compartment through the left side of the engine compartment, and leaves out the right side, after passing through the fuel pressure regulator on the right side firewall. Quiz: where does the hose forward of the fuel pressure regulator lead to? Right: it goes directly to the fuel tank, where it returns unused fuel to the tank. You saw that hose when you were under the bus, remember? That's all there is to it. Now that you know the geography, you can get to work. 2) Drain fuel from the vehicle. Get out your fire extinguisher, jerry can, rags, and vice grips. Disconnect the battery. Get under the bus, and put a vise-grip on the fuel line just upstream from the fuel filter to pinch it closed. Loosen the clamp on the fuel filter. Remove the hose: careful! Some gas will spill out from the filter end, but it shouldn't be much. Keep it off your skin with the rags. You'll have a little trapped gas spill from most of the connections you undo, so get used to it. Get the jerry can open and under the bus next to the line from the gas tank. Put the end of the hose into the jerry can, and check that everything is ready. Ready? Remove the vise-grips from the fuel line. Your tank will empty into the jerry can. Get away from it a bit while it's draining--the fumes are bad for you. Done? Cap the jerry can and put it aside. You'll pour the gas back into the bus when you're done. 3) Start swapping old fuel line for new: This is easy. Do all the lines under the bus first, before moving to the engive compartment. Loosen the clamps, remove the line, use the old line to measure where to cut the new line to length, and re-install with new clamps. Get them good and tight. There are some clips under the bus to hold some sections of line up against the underbody: look for them and use them. Do each piece one at a time so you don't get confused. Now's a good time to replace your fuel filter--just pop it in when you're replacing that section. Use the bigger hose clamps for the big hose connecting the filter to the pump. If a hose won't come off, try twisting it to break it free, or lever the end with a wide screwdriver. 4) Move to the engine compartment: Many of the lines in the engine compartment are very short, and new fuel line is pretty stiff. It's easiest to loosen all the fuel line clamps at once, and remove the metal fuel tubes from each side of the ring main as units. You can pull of the old lines and clamp on new ones with the tubes out of the car. If you're replacing fuel injector seals at this point, pop off the blue electrical connections for each injector (remember which one is which!), and undo the 10mm nuts holding each injector in place. *Carefully* pull the injectors straight out of their holes. Do not bang them on the sides of the hole, and keep them from picking up dirt. You can remove the each side's injectors and metal fuel ring all as one piece if you want to be clever. Replace all the fuel lines, replace injector seals, clean everything up, and reinstall. Check that the fuel line going through the firewall on the left side has a good rubber grommet protecting it from chafing. You may well want to take the time to fabricate a bulkhead fitting as described by Bob Hoover on his "Sermons of Bob Hoover" page. Double and triple check all the fuel line connections. Good and tight? Properly positioned? No fuel lines cut too short, binding, resting on parts of the motor or tranny that will get hot, or otherwise potentially hazardous? Are all the electrical connections back on in the proper configuration? Are you sure? Are you really, really sure? Check everything. It's your bus. 5) Start it up: Reconnect your battery. Pour the gas you stored in the jerry can back into the gas tank. Wait a few minutes. Crawl under the bus again and check for leaks, wet connections, anything. Get in and fire up the bus for 5 or 10 seconds of so. Shut it off. Go back and check for leaks, wet connections, etc. If everything's OK, put the air cleaner back on. Don't forget to put the two air hoses back on to the air cleaner. If it's missing, check electrical connections--is everything plugged back in and secure? That's it! Sniff around the engine a bit for the first few days to make sure everything's happy. Give your bus a bath as an extra treat. See? Wasn't that hard, was it? Tobin T. Copley copley@healthcare.ubc.ca