Project Lazarus

[husker boxster]

Fuel Strainer Part I

Been working on replacing the fuel strainer in the btm of the tank. It screws into a metal collar that's stuck inside the plastic tank. In theory, you unscrew the old strainer and screw the new one in. Good theory but not reality when the strainer doesn't break loose from the collar. Used the impact wrench but the collar, not the strainer, just spun in the neck. Got the strainer / collar combo out. Here they are, old strainer + collar on right, new strainer on left:



I soaked the threads inside the collar and tried my darnedest to remove the collar from the old strainer, esp without tearing up the teeth on the collar. No luck. Put a thread out on the RL 928 forum and got a resp that said throw the collar away and buy Roger's replacement. It looked promising, so I purchased it.




To install the new collar, you have to fish it on a wire that starts at the top of the tank in the sending unit hole, which isn't big enough to stick my hand, let alone my arm, thru. Got the wire fished thru properly.



With some mechanical fingers, I'm able to get the collar close enough to the hole that I can get my fingers on the collar and get it lined up but not into the neck. Put some thought into it and developed a puller from a 6" carriage bolt, a 3/8, 7/16, and 3/4 flat washer. I cut a slot in the end so I could hold it in place with a screwdriver when tightening it down.




Fished the puller into the tank and grabbed it with the fingers. Put the washers on the outside and began tightening it down.



Can feel it sliding into the neck. This is good. Release the puller and check my work. The collar is in the neck but only 1/2 way.



Since I'm sitting at 8 pics and only allowed 10, the rest of my story in the next post.

[husker boxster]

Part II of Fuel Strainer post

Unfortunately, the collar was too low to catch the threads of the strainer. Fished the puller back in and ran it a bit farther and then backed it off. Collar stayed in same place. Looks like the inner tank baffle is holding the collar at it's current place and won't let it go further. Hmmm...

So I thought about it and decided to try a smaller version of my puller, so I could see what was going on.



I was correct - the puller would move the collar up the hole but it would go back down when released. Put some more thought into the situation and decided to try a bead of super glue higher up in the hole, then use the small puller to position the collar high enough that the glue catches the collar. Left it sit overnight with the puller in place. This morning I removed the puller and the collar was holding in a higher position.



I carefully placed the strainer in the hole and lightly started to screw it in. It caught! I was able to tighten it down. Success!



Guess the acid test is when it's back in the car and I add some fuel. I should mention that the 6" bolt was a tad long. Had issues with getting it fished out. I cut it down to 5", which was better, but 4.5" would be optimal.

Next up is putting the tank back in and attaching the fuel pump and new fuel filter. Waiting for a connecting pipe between the pump and filter. Supposed to arrive on Mon (fingers crossed). May not be too long before a test start.