truck talk: the proverbial five cent part

 So...
Monday at lunch time I decided to do a quick fuel filter change on the
motogroove van. It's just one bolt for the clamp, and two quick-
connect couplings.

Well, the quick connect couplings cost me about a day and a half.

<insert fuel leakage, puddle in driveway, gasoline in eyeball, asphalt
solution in hair, wishing somebody would just toss a match under there
with me)

 Rather than remaining intact within the ends of the fuel line, they
came out with the fuel filter. At first, this led to confusion. I
thought the little black sleeves stuck on the filter were supposed to
come with the filter. And why did this o-ring fall out? Why don't they
give you a new one of those? Oh, and what's that nylon backing washer?
Why is none of this in the drawings?

Go o-ring shopping. Return one filter, buy another at another store.
Find that nobody anywhere on the planet can sell me the little plastic
sleeves, so I'd better hope they come off without damage. They do.

Then one gets lost in the driveway. My neighbor has this gigantic
silver maple that litters my driveway with those pesky propeller
seeds. And the little black plastic sleeve makes no noise, hiding,
mocking me. Two hours. I know it's there somehwere. Two hours, looking
for a little piece of plastic the size of a pencil eraser.

I go to the phone, to several Chevy dealers. I go to the web. The
little black sleeve is unavailable by itself. It is part of the fuel
line assembly. The fuel line gets sold as a gang of three for $170. I
need a tiny plastic piece. Oh, hey a repair kit for $30. It's either
that or the junk yard. Time is money and all that. Boom $30 on my
credit card.

Speedy processing has my order shipped in 20 minutes. At 21 minutes,
way over on the other side of the yard, nowhere near where I was
working... there it is, the little plastic sleeve, on the edge of the
grass and the gravel walk. Goddamned chipmucks.

Too late to cancel the $30 kit. But at least I can go to work today.

 
Those quick-release couplings are the work of the devil... 3 devils
when it's on plastic fuel line.


Dave

 Dean H reports:


Those quick connect couplings are OK first time, suck second, and
don't work (as you discovered) third.  Or something like that.  I
bought
the trick tools to take them off which helps get them off the second
time - the first you can do with your fingers - but not the third.

http://www.harborfreight.com/4-piece-fuel-and-auto-trans-line-disconnect-tool-set-96834.html


Go fast. Take chances.
Mike S.

 In article


arrrgggg.

Even though I like to work on mechanical stuff, I've stopped working
on my cars. Can't afford the down time for stuff like you just
experienced. Cheaper to pay the $140/hour mechanic. Unfortunately.

I did recently have fun fixing our 4 year old freezer. Turns out the
cable that goes through the door hinge and powers the fancy-shmancy
digital in-the-door temp. control broke. Only took me all day and a
wasted parts order to figure it out though...

--
Charles
'99 YZ250

 Similar to your story, that "almost" happened to me.  It happened to
the mechanic instead.  I wanted new brakes on the car.  As I was
attempting to get all the boxes unloaded and finish the house move-in,
I chose wisely to just pay the money to leave it at the shop.   I
stopped in, got the estimate for the parts and labor and readily
agreed it was more than fair.  He said he'll call in an hour or two.

He called almost 8 hours later to say it was ready.  I got there and
he said he lost his butt on the labor on this one.  His guys had never
done an Audi before.  Neither had I.  He said it took one of them
going online and finally locating a manual specifically for my model
year of brakes.  There is a few extra steps involving a ratchet to
move the pistons back in following the new pad install.  He then gave
me the manual that he printed off for me.  He laughed and said next
time I ask for work, he's going to add at least $200 to any estimate,
just because.