Enkil

This is for all the people that have heard what at PAIN in the patootie replacing the fuel pump is.

Well, it isn't. Really. Can be done in a few hours, no problem, depending on how rusted together some bolts are. Also, this is for fuel injected cars with the in-tank fuel pump.


First, raise and properly support your car by it's frame in front of where the LCA's hinge. You will need to raise the car a significant amount to give the rear end enough room to drop.

Now, place a jack underneath the rear end and support it. It doesn't need to be pushed back up any.

Disconnect the anti-sway bar from the frame of the car. It can stay attached to the axle.

Now go inside your car. Fold the rear seats down, and pull back the rearmost piece of carpeting (the one that goes into your "trunk" area). On either side, where it slopes downward for the seat back, is where the upper part of the shocks attach to your car. Mine were covered with some kind of foam, yours may or may not be. Hold the bolt of the shock itself with a pair of plyers or a 12mm open-ended wrench (or whatever fits it best -- I think it's 12mm) and loosen the nut. Once the nut has broken free you probably won't need to hold the shock itself anymore. Do this for both sides, of course.

Back underneath your car, you may now slowly lower the jack supporting your rear differential. The weight of it should bring it all the way down. Once it gets down far enough, and there's no tension on the springs, remove them to get them out of the way. They'll probably just fall out anyways.

You should now have plenty of space to wiggle the exhaust pipe out the way, too. The long one that connects the cat to the muffler itself. The muffler itself, too, can be moved out of the way.

Take off the panhard bar, where it attaches to the frame. No need to disconnect it from the axle. Remove the bar directly above it.

You may have some thin metal sheeting underneath there that will definately get in the way. A small socket will take care of this without any difficulty.

By this point, the gas tank should be plainly visable. But before we get to dropping this, go back to the outside of your car again and look at the filler neck. It's got a rubber/plastic cup around it that will get in the way unless you take it off now. Back under the car, find some way to support your gas tank, as you'll find it's rather heavy if you're laying on your back, especially if your fuel pump died with a full tank of gas, as mine did.

There are four lines running out of your gas tank along the driver's side. One high-pressure line that you need two open-ended wrenches to take off, two low-pressure lines that are clamped on, and one line that I think is a vent. Also, there is an electrical connection that connects in the very middle of the car and runs through into the back seat. Disconnect all these.

The tank itself is held in place by two straps that bolt towards the front of the car way up high in there. These bolts are somewhat long so don't be surprised if it takes a while to turn them out. Once each of the straps is unbolted, the other side disconnects by turning the strap and wiggling it out. You'll see what I mean.

Now for the fun part -- wiggling the tank out. Because of the weight, and your position under the car, this is probably the most difficult part. Wiggle for a while, check the filler neck as that got hung up on my car, and eventually it will come out.

Looking at the top of the tank where the lines run in, you'll see a ring with three tabs sticking up. Take a flathead screwdriver (or some similarly shaped tool) and gently tap these tabs in such a way that it turns the ring counter-clockwise. This will eventually cause the clamp holding the lid of the fuel pump on to be released, allowing you to pull the fuel pump out of your car.

From there, follow the instructions of your fuel pump.


Some other tips:

Bring penetrating oil. Even if it doesn't look rusted, it can't hurt to use it. All the bolts on my car came right off.

It is not necessary to drop both sides of the car, but it DOES greatly help with things. If, for whatever reason, you're in such a position that you can't drop both sides, you need to be able to drop at least the passenger's side of the rear axle, as that's the direction you'll need to pull the fuel tank to get it out of the way.

Get something ahead of time to pour all the gas into. This will make lifting it back into place much easier.



I hope this helps, and I hope anybody else reading this catches and informs me of any errors.

ljnowell

You mean you didnt just cut a great big hole in the metal above it to yank it out??? Just kidding man, I hate it when people do that. Of course one way to look at it is, every assclown who ruins thier car that way makes ours worth a little more.

EYEROCK89

Well, the guy I bought the IROC from was an @$$ clown. First time I got up under the car, I noticed that when he replaced the fuel pump...he used a saws-all to cut the floor out of the back. Now, here's the kcicker, he cut, bent, and then used a "Narrow Bridge" road sign to patch the whole. What a freakin idiot.

MikeDirntRulez

Thank you so much man!

After searching for about 1 hour I finally came across this post.

This has renewed my faith that I can do it myself when I do it.

I vote sticky, this is one of the most helpful posts i've ever read. I love it when people do something on their car and post how they did it for others to see, that's one good thing about car guys, they always want to help eachother out.

Thanks man, I appreciate it!

pasky

Calm down you woman, my car is just a v6 anyways, not like its worth anything. The value on these cars aren't going to sky rocket any time soon either.

Borsty

iTrader: (2)

awesome post.

3.8TransAM

Kinda half @!#% read the post.

Instead of undoing the shock bolts in the car, why dont u just unbolt them at the rear end?

Lots easier sinc eyour already there and u dont have to jump in a clean car all dirty.

later
Jeremy

swerve-driver

Enkil-
Good post. I agree with 3.8 on the idea of removing the shocks at the axle. That is the way I did it.

I also had to remove the bolt that holds the fuel and brake lines to the body when lowering the axle. The axle came down so far it would have ripped the flex line off, though mine is an aftermarket braided hose, so it may be shorter.

I just finished replacing a fuel pump and even though the rear end was hanging down as far as possible- way way down there, getting the tank out was a struggle.

It did go back in with minimal fuss though.

It is almost enough to make me understand why some people would rather cut through the top. The job took me about ~6 hours.

S-D

gottfuel

So what would be so bad if i made a custom trick door in there to replace the fuelpump? and made it look clean.,,.imean what wouldbe so wrong with that?

gottfuel

bump

pizza_guy

I don't think it would be wrong if u did everything RIGHT.

However, this is a fiercly debated subject that usually goes nowhere, so all we can do is what we think is best for our cars.

IROCZZ3

Agreed- many get offended at the term 'hack job' because quite honestly that's what the end result looks like IF done wrong. I'm really not against cutting a hole in the trunk but I would take the time to drop the tank, make a nice panel with Dzus fasteners, and put proper AN fittings on the lines. Of course that defeats the purpose of saving time by not dropping the tank.

Red Devil

Nothing... except to do it 'right' that way will take you much longer than the 'right' way. You wouldn't believe how many carb hoses I've seen bridging the lines that they had to cut.