Trying to replace the fuel filter on my 88 IROC. Those 5/8 fittings are on there like a ****. I’ve sprayed them with WD40. There is no rust it is a west coast car. Surprisingly clean under there. Any secrets?

 

Use a flare nut line wrench.

 

Those things can be super gnarly - don't get discouraged. Use some real elbow grease in there. I had to have a friend hold the carb-side fitting with a wrench while I went to town with a line wrench on the fuel fitting - and I still ended up mangling the heck out of that thing. It's really on there but it will come off if you stay at it.

 

Gotta 'crack' em loose. What I mean is, soak the threads and around the tube with a good penetrating lube (WD40 is not a good penetrating lube) slip a good quality line wrench on the tube nut, and a good open end wrench on the filter nut, preload the filter nut and pop line wrench briskly in the right direction a few times until you feel it move.

If you use a Taiwan wrench, adjustable wrench, vise grips, or just slowly try to sneak up on too much force, you'll slip off the nut or twist it into oblivion and end up replacing the hard line. You gotta shock it loose with some impact. Palm of your hand might do it, or grab the rubber mallet and use that to whack the line wrench.

 

I had a regular open-end 5/8 on the line nut and a crescent on the filter hex. I'll get a 5/8 line wrench. What size is that damn hex on the filter? What penetrating lube is recommended? I have some PB Blaster.

thanks.

 

PB blaster is better than WD40... which is better than spit and a prayer - but not by much. Kroil is better. If you want the ultimate you need to find Yield by Chemsearch - it's tough to find and mostly used in heavy industry. Try paper mills and saw mills, rail yards, etc. Anywhere you can find a heavy industrial millwrong's..... just find a paper mill and follow the trail of broken parts and cigarette butts. They will be the ones in coveralls leaning against a six foot snipe.

GD

 

Thanks for the advice GD, but we really don't have any paper mills or saw mills here in San Jose. And the nearest real rail yard with a locomotive shop is in Roseville. I'll try PB Blaster.

 

Kroil is very good, that’s what I use. Buy a good USA-made flare but wrench; find yourself a vintage Snap-On, Proto or KD-Tools wrench on eBay, a garage sale or a flea market. Good tools are worth their weight in gold, Harbor Freight stuff has its place but not for stuff like this.

 

3 in one oil has been the best thing we've used.

 

I looked online for Kroil, but the only thing I saw was gallon size jugs. Pass. PB it will be.

I found a Craftsman brand flare wrench on Amazon. Craftsman tools were always pretty good.

What size is that hex on the filter itself?

 

Craftsman is crap. Taiwan crap.

Kroil is available from the manufacturer in standard aerosol cans:

http://www.kanolabs.com

Filter hex size.... use a crescent nut lathe. Or measure it with some calipers. Different brands are often different sizes.

GD

 

The filter nut is 20mm. Odd size for sure.

 

Kinda agree, somewhat disagree. Low sales volume tools, there's still a ton of US made inventory out there. You've gotta read the fine print. For example, the screwdrivers at the local ACE last week, were still marked WF for Western Forge, most of the standard sockets were Hecho in China. Since the Black & Decker/Stanley buy out, some of the stuff is definitely cheaper quality. The chrome looks like **** compared to 20 years ago. Cost to value, Harbor Freight hand tools are probably the better buy right now.

Right now if I needed a quality tool, I'd go 2nd hand tool shopping and look for an older name brand tool. A lot of my Craftsman tools were obtained new, second hand, from the local pawn shop. Paid pennies on the dollar and bought handfuls of tools at a time. Only negative was I ended up with so many 10mm and 13mm sockets it's hard to tell if I'm keeping sockets with the right sets. Ebay, yard sales, estate sales, plenty of places to look for better stuff, but for the typical guy that may only do one shade tree project every few years, the junk is probably just fine.

 

Harbor Freight clearly has the better warranty now that they have location and inventory advantages. But for flare wrenches..... I don't trust anything less than Snap-On. Harbor Freight has come a long way the last few years but a flare nut wrench is probably outside their wheel-house IMO. When it comes to quite possibly rounding off a fastener..... well us professionals have more than inconvenience wagered on the job.

GD

 

It makes good sense if you are a professional to buy professional grade tools. The average guy turning wrenches on his hobby car, not so much.

My father was a millwright for many, many years. He has/had single wrenches and hand tools that cost as much as my entire setup of ratchets and sockets. It made sense when you are talking about absurdly expensive machines and the costs of downtime when the machine wasn't running. Today if he needs a hand tool he just buys pittsburgh stuff from HF.

 

I heard that it was 20mm but wanted confirmation. I have not seen any 20mm open-end wrenches.

 

Depends...gotta read the fine print. Older craftsman is good, but anything after they switched to chineseum is complete crap. Easy want to tell when looking on the web/garage sales is the good ones have "U.S.A." stamped on them clearly on the side of the wrench/socket. If it doesn't have that then they are crap.

 

I ordered an open/flare combo wrench from Snap-on years ago. When I worked at the Chevy dealer. Too expensive for just one job. But nice. Especially when they are really rusted. The ends are really thick/wide to distribute the load better.

 

And Snap-On wrenches are so pretty, you can wipe them off at the end of the day and use them to eat spaghetti.