In my infinite mechanical aptitude, I broke the fuel return line elbow on the saab. It's a plastic fitting that connects the hard nylon return line to the fuel pump. New part was like $3. But now I have to attach it. With a razor blade to cut the line, I can get a fresh section and I'm pretty sure there is enough line to lose and inch and still have enough. What is the best way to attach the new fitting?
On the googles I'm seeing:
a. buy the $80 dorman kit and press the new fitting on using a clamp block similar to a brake flaring tool (maybe an enterprising person could use the brake line flaring block he already has...)
b. heat the line with a heat gun - I'm a little concerned about doing this inside the car with the fuel tank open and right below me
c. heat the line with boiling water - this feels much safer but maybe doesn't heat the line enough to make a difference?
What is the right way?
I don't know the answer. It I want to so I'm following this. Please don't try the fire.
If they are the same ones as use on gm cars in the 90's there is a kit I used that you cut back the plastic line and then heat it and while it is hot you slide a brass fitting into the line. After fixing a couple I discovered that heating the brass fitting up (in boiling water) and installing it while warm was much better as it did not suck the heat out of the plastic line causing it to cool and shrink fast. This results in you not getting the brass fitting all the way seated in to the plastic line. Once the brass fitting is in place you can then attach what ever you want to the fitting. As for heating the plastic line I used a hair drier. I made a 3" or so tube from alu foil to trap the heat from the hair drier around the line. I never melted a line but I was always worried about this so be carful. I don't think you need to get it much over 250 deg or so but I never actually measured it to be sure of the exact temps I was dealing with.
So boiling water won't soften it enough you think? I'd rather not climb into an environment with fuel vapors present and start playing with a hair dryer.
I may just try the boiling water first because it seems that you can just use huge pressure to install these things, so any amount of heat must help.
NOHOME
UltimaDork
11/27/17 3:57 p.m.
So far I have done two with the boiling water method. Jack be nimble Jack be quick or the part, she no stick!
Well, it's a whole heck of a lot harder than it looks. I'll have more in the morning but suffice to say I'm glad I only had to fix the return line.
Long story: Got a 5/16th brass barbed splice fitting and some new fuel line from the parts store. The brass fitting is specifically for this hard nylon line.
Getting it in boiling water was much harder than is sounds because of access restrictions (you can see I have already enlarged my access hole with tin snips). And even with the line in the boiling water for 10 minutes the line was not soft enough to go all the way on the fitting. I did grab a hair dryer and that provided enough extra heat to get the line over 4 barbs on the 5 barb fitting.
Put it all back together and no leaks, but this is also the return side so it should see very little pressure if any. I'm definitely not in love with this fix, so I will keep looking for a better solution. If there is a push on 'sharkbite' type fitting for the nylon line that has a barbed fitting for rubber fuel line on the other, I am in the market. Haha.
