Okay, remember when I mentioned that I was sort of concerned about clamping
the fuel hose with a Vice-Grip? Well, I ramped the car and slid the oil pan
under the related area, clamped the hose, and replaced the filter. I didn't
love that lower hose that I clamped (when I pulled the old filter off I took
a look at hose and while it wasn't horrible it wasn't new either) but I
didn't replace it...really bad mistake. By now you have probably labeled me
as a bit more cautious than some but for some reason I wanted to be extra
sure that the hose was okay so I left the car on the ramps with the pan
under the car for the whole week (weather here has been so horrible there
was no chance of using the 6 anyway) and even wrapped a paper towel around
the suspect area to make sure there was no slow seepage. I checked it 4 or 5
times over the week and saw nothing. I get a call from my 9 month pregnant
wife while I was just settling into my 2nd cup of coffee at work Friday
morning..she smells gas...a lot of gas. I ask her to look at some specific
areas and she tells me it's leaking and the pan has about an inch of fuel in
it. Now my wife is somewhat melodramatic but I don't mess with gas so I call
my father (lives next town over) and ask him to go over and check it out. He
will always do what he can but I'm not about to ask him to do my dirty work
and nothing shy of my dong it will make me comfortable that my house won't
go up in flames so I immediately leave work to come home. By the time I am
on the highway my father is at my house telling me it's blowing all over the
place but he moved the filter up and over a little and that inch or so must
have lifted the broken part of the hose above the tank level (remember the
car is on ramps) because the leak tapered off quite a bit. This piece of
news was quite welcome as I eased off from my driving at 2X the legal limit
(kidding...sort of). Once I got home I looked at the break and it was
exactly where I had Vice-Gripped the line. I promise you that I did not
clamp it too hard due to my concern for the process in the first place. I
assume that the mild rise in temperature that day caused some expansion in
the tank and put a touch more pressure on the line and it blew. All related
hoses and filter completely replaced now and my "new" method is to use a
golf tee on the open end of the hose.
Josh
'76 TR6 (with spanking new rubber fuel lines!)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This message is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the
designated recipient(s) named above. If you are not the intended recipient of
this message you are hereby notified that any review, dissemination,
distribution or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. This
communication is for information purposes only and should not be regarded as an
offer to sell or as a solicitation of an offer to buy any financial product, an
official confirmation of any transaction, or as an official statement of Lehman
Brothers. Email transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free.
Therefore, we do not represent that this information is complete or accurate
and it should not be relied upon as such. All information is subject to change
without notice.
|