Fuel Line Leak

[Richie G]

ok so i just went out and set my ramps, started it up.  the beauty is it starts and runs so nice!.  The crappy part was my ramps are sliding all over the place as I gently inch forward.  I have a typical smooth concrete floor that had some old garage floor pain applied to it.  By no means slick, but certainly not rough.  the tires get a bit up and they squirt out leaving skid marks where the rubber bad is on the low end.  Any tips on getting up there?  I've seen videos and all of them show them placing the ramps under the tires without any "run up" room between tire and ramp edge.

[Zed Head]

I'd use the scissor jack under a control arm then set the ramps under the tires and drop it down on them.

[Richie G]

Zed i actually tried that by using my floor jack under the cross member and its like 2 inches too short to get the ramps under fully 😞  Are you saying one tire at a time?  If so can you show me where exactly?  In the meantime I had an idea how to brace them with something but I'm open to anything.

[Richie G]

Just saw this towel trick, will try it later tonight (when wife is asleep and she wont miss the towels) 🙂

 

I used to lay a towel partially under each ramp so that it stuck out at least a foot in front of the ramp so that the tires would roll onto the towel and then ramp. That would keep the ramps from sliding.

[Zed Head]

I was going to suggest strapping the ramp to the wheel with a bungy cord.

An old inner tube under the ramp might work too.  You could even glue it down.

[bluez]

A few blocks of wood either under or on top of the jack should raise it enough place ramps underneath the car.

[Richie G]

Good news bad news.  BlueZ a 2x6 was the trick for the jack/ramp situation so I got it up safely.  i can't believe I didn't think of that, shameful.  That was the initial; good news.  Bad news tightening didn't do much if anything.  There's barely any thread left and it actually feels like it wants to strip or has possibly been cross threaded all this time so I didn't want to push it.  That was the bad news.  I put it back down, it started sweet and easy and then i let it run for about 5 mins.  As predicted the drip slowed due to a probably air-suck but not fully stopped.  It's at the point I feel safe driving it (if I can find the seats lol) so in the AM I'm going to call someone whos worked on this for me before with a full lift and everything we would need.  While I was under there it really doesnt have as much play as it seems in the photo and i can't really get many tools up there even to cut it out.  Gary Cook out of Sacramento had helped me sort a bunch of things when I first got this back in 21.  Some of you local guys may know him, he's been racing and building Z's for a while and even had some time on the Shelby team prior.  He'll probably have another fuel line he can swap in a jiff.  Might take a week or so especially with holiday but the panic has left and I feel ok even if I had to leave it a bit.  Thanks to all.

[Richie G]

I don't want to jinx myself, but I think I fixed it!  I was determined to do this myself and what really held me back was not having the right tool so I upgraded my wrenches and tried one more time.  Got it lifted grabbed a few open wrenches and attempted to tighten the existing compression fitting.  It was a bit easier this time and so far about 5 hrs ago not a drip.  Now it is 105 in Sacramento so maybe a pinhole still exists and it's immediately evaporating but the finger test so far is holding true.  I will check again over the next few days.  I have a new compression fitting if I feel it needs replacement but so far so good.  Again want to thank everyone.  For someone like me still learning and trying to do this all myself I feel real good about what I've accomplished so far. 🙂

[Richie G]

I knew I shouldn't have said anything lol.  This AM got a bit of a drip.  Better than when i started but needs to be replaced for sure.  I guess the heat in my garage was the difference.  At least I have what I need now to attempt a replacement.  Or I guess I can just keep my garage at 105, that seemed to work well lol.

[Zed Head]

Many people don't really understand what the sealing surfaces are in a compression fitting.  It's important the surfaces are clean and that the tube is round, not distorted.

It could be also that the Nissan 8 mm nominal tubing dimension is just not right for the typical US domestic automotive repair kit.

Things to think about.  Good luck.

[Richie G]

OK, hopefully this does it even if it's temporary.  I was able to get the old fitting off and maybe understand what had happened.  It was the type of fitting that required a flange not the traditional compression with sleeves.  PO made some nice flanges, seemed clean without burs but i noticed on the tank side the tube at the flange was just starting to make a turn ever so slightly.  You'd never really notice unless it was cutoff to inspect up close.  So i think the flange wasn't sitting perfectly flat inside the fitting.  Got myself a micro sized pipe cutter and with enough wrangling was able to cut it out.  Removing the mounting screws all the way to the filter and a few in the tunnel got me enough play to get it done.  Thanks for that tip.  For some reason I look at these hard lines and am always so worried they're going to be stressed to the point I make it worse.  Lessen learned.  Ok now to the fix.  Cutting the section out resulted in a gap too wide to bridge with another sleeve compression fitting no matter what i did.  I had to resort to hose and clamps but since I couldn't get the bump ring on the end of the pipe i used 7mm instead of 8mm hose to make it more snug.  At some point I think i can get a new section of line and make the bends to get a true compression on there (unless I just ignore this until i get a real opportunity to replace it all).

I will leave it overnight again as it's too hot in the garage to know if its evaporating like yesterday.  It started and ran excellent so that's a positive.  If it does work, here's my trophy and I'm hanging on to this one!

 

Thanks all!

[Patcon]

I would just replace the whole line at some point in the future