Stangkiller

So, i noticed some leaking fuel...as well as the fact that my jackstand was touching the fuel line. I've obviously got a leak in the line.

What's it take to replace the fuel line? And would there be anything wrong with cutting the line, and using rubber fuel hose to replace the leaking section?

rcread

Don't use rubber where steel once was. You risk a fire doing that. I believe you have to lift the body off of the frame to replace the fuel line, unless you want to switch over to braided steel lines.

Stangkiller

Steel braded lines...That's an idea. Does anybody sell a steel braded line kit for the C3's?

Duke94

If you can get to it, cut out the bad spot and replace with a piece of steel fuel line and a couple of unions. You'll have to flare the ends of the tube where you cut it off. I wouldn't use rubber hose=bubba fix.

aussiejohn

G'day,
Mate, rcread and the Duke are correct. You have three choices.

aussiejohn

And those choices are:-

#1 Do the job properly by lifting the body and replace the whole fuel line with a brand new one in either steel or stainless steel. These are available from many of the Forum advertisers.

#2 Drain the tank then cut the line either side of the leak, then flare the fuel lines and replace the damaged section with a piece of steel fuel line.

#3 Use the Bubba fix with rubber line and go grey early by wondering when your car will unexpectedly catch on fire.

Personally, I'd choose one of the first two.

Regards from Down Under.

aussiejohn

Stangkiller

The reason i was thinking rubber would work. The lines broke right about when they go over the frame to go around the Rear wheel. Just about the only place its not accessible.

Just wondering, how much work is it to lift the body off? Thatd make life so much easier for doing the Trailing Arms.

68/70Vette

You only need to seperate the body from the frame by 10 inches (at the rear) to install a new stainless steel brake line. (They are harder to install since they don't bend very easy.) An of course, with this body separation, replacing the brake lines will be easy. Yes, it should make replacing the trailing arms easier also, particularly if you have rustwelded trailing arm bolts.

And with the body elevated this small amount, removing the gas tank also becomes much easier......

Why is the gas line leaking? Has it rusted completely through? If so the inside of the tank is probably also rusted.

Durango_Boy

The gas is leaking because he set the car down on jack stands and the fuel line was between the stand and the frame. Bust.

pws69

That wouldn't make it leak if it wasn't rusted through - it would only crush it.....

Durango_Boy

Unless it caught it on a corner. I broke a fuel line once just by standing on it in an engine bay.

MonzaRedConvert

I think there is one more slightly less Bubba fix. You could replace the damaged section with braided steel instead of rubber. It's not the ideal solution, but I would consider it a relatively safe temporary fix until you're ready to do the body lift.

RGVette

You've all been talking about safety or lack thereof when applying rubber to where the steel gas line was. Good point, then several have suggested braided steel lines - are the braided steel lines safe?

Stangkiller

Well, i caused the leak. I did not however crush the line, or cause the leak where i contacted the fuel line.

Farther down stream the fuel lines broke. Because the jack stand moved the pretty rusty fuel lines.

I assumed had i had new lines this would not be a problem, but due to the age and condition of the lines, this was all that was needed for the lines to break. Likely would have eventually happened had i not pushed them up with the jackstand.

Stangkiller

Ok, so how hard is it to get the rear up 10" i'm sorry, im not too familiar with the C3 platorm. I don't even know if this is really viable, if it is. Then i guess i need to go do some more research.

Thank You,

Chris

68/70Vette

I've posted several long posts about dropping the frame about 10 inches in back, probably a couple inches in the front to replace the gas lines and paint and clean portions of the frame hidden by the birdcage. Also, it was a good time to replace the fuel tank. (much easier with a frame body separation.) Basically the idea was to jack the car up about 10 inches. Add supports under the body - under the floor pans, support from floor to nose, support at back of body to floor, etc. Next undo all the stuff that connects the body and frame (tedious not hard)and undo the 8 body mount bolts (4 per side) and disconnect the radiator support frame to main frame, etc. This little amount of clearance will allow you to clean and completely paint the frame. If you don't have a frame or birdcage rust problem, you can do pretty much everything someone can do with a complete body off project.

Also look for some Posts by "73,Dark Blue 454." I think he's doing essentially the same thing. He has a long list of things to disconnect in a posting he provided a week or so ago.

I separated the body and frame all by myself and put it all back together myself. Since you don't lift the body very much you can do this in a garage. You do need a good bit of free space around the body since you'll be moving floor jacks around quite a bit. They have long handles.

Durango_Boy

Good luck man. I hope you do it the right way and separate the body from the frame. It's a good move to replace all the hard lines now that you know there is a problem. Check the return line too if it's still being used.

73, Dark Blue 454

Yeah, I just went through this. I call it a mini-frame-off. I did it in my driveway with hand tools, one man job,..took most the daylight of a Saturday and Sunday, but I did a lot of cleaning and painting along the way. Plus, the job was primarily for the purpose of replacing the body biscuits,.. the fuel lines (the main and return) were a "while I'm at it".

Also, I studied this option, but I don't see how you could lift your car then lower the frame and have enough room to crawl around under the car. So, I rented an engine hoist and purchased the body removal straps (about $80) and it worked great.

You only need to lift the body about 6-8 inches. Here's a list things I disconnected or removed from my 454 automatic A/C 1973 car. This list is about half what a full frame off requires:

Hood
Kick panels
8 Body mount bolts (note the count of shims at each)
Separate the master from the booster
Negative battery cable
Battery cable at starter
Steering coupler
Tranny shifter cable (at the tranny)
Speedo cable
Tranny fluid lines (at the radiator)
Carb cable at carb
Tach cable at tach
Hot ignition wire at coil
Oil pressure line (at the bracket on the engine)
Seat belt anchors
E-brake cable (at the Y)
2 Bolts that hold the lower part of radiator support
Radiator fan and clutch (didn't require shroud removal)
Very front nose bracket
Bumbers
Most all front and rear bumper bracketry
Exhaust panel
Front valance
A/C hoses near radiator
Ground strap in front of the #1 LH body mount
Ground strap from the radio antenna/ground plate
Alarm horn ground

Everything else like radiator hoses, starter wires, heater hoses, etc,
has enough play to allow for the 6-8 inches.

The fuel lines are started in front of the rear RH wheel,..worked from there to the rear (a tip from someone on this site). Then work to the front. Then I removed the tranny crossmember bolts on that side, dropped the x-member an inch, which was enough to allow me to route the fuel lines through it. Actually, the fuel lines weren't that bad a job,..and I did use stainless.

Just don't count how many times you have crawl under the car,..

Good luck,
Wes

Stangkiller

Thank you so much for all the info!

i love this forum!


Chris

Durango_Boy

73, Dark Blue 454 - Holy crap...that was great man. Can anyone say 'Sticky?'