Fuel line in rear leaking, need to replace - help please?

[Neurowiz]

I have an 87 Supra, non turbo. I confirmed last night that the fuel line going from the (dampener/some assembly above the rear right axle - don't have Chilton's handy right here to ID it?) to the fuel tank is leaking, a nice fountain of fuel. It's rusted pretty badly. Ugh! I hate corroded lines, just did a brake line job on a Sentra that was hellish.

Chilton's is not too helpful in this area, but I think I have a plan and am hoping someone here has done this and can answer my questions and let me know if my plan is a good one.

First question - the line that is leaking comes from the (dampener?) to the tank, there is a hard line from tank to a nut or union, then a small piece of hard line after that nut/union that goes into a rubber hose. There is no clip holding the line to the rubber hose, so I wondered if this was a hose or just an insulated part of the hard line - it felt hard. I'm not sure what it is. Can I just replace the line up to the rubber hose or is that a complete hard line from the (dampener?) to the tank?

Next question - my experience with corroded brake lines is that if you're doing one, you should do them all. Is that a good rule of thumb with the Supra fuel lines?

Next question - I saw a message for a Camry fuel line replacement that preformed lines are available? Is that true for the Supra as well? Stealership the only place or alternative (cheaper) options?


The plan:

Per Chiltons:
1. Relieve pressure in the lines (Do I need to do this since the line is broke or is this just to remove fuel from the system?)

2. Drain the tank.

3. (My thought at this point was to unclip the other two lines that look OK and have clips attaching them to rubber hoses, then undo the line that is broke from the rubber hose, if that's possible)

4. Drop the tank, per Chiltons

5. Replace one/all the lines, just from the tank to the rubber hoses.

6. Install tank. Refuel. Check for leaks. Per Chiltons.

Any got'chas that you've run into when doing this job on your own?

Thanks!
Regards,
Michael

[bad7mgte]

There's a fuel filter back there by the tank....sure that's not what you're looking at.
Second, hard lines as far as my experience goes....do not usually run all the way up to the top of the tank, they usually connect up with some flexible lines around the front or side of the tank.
I've replaced the fuel filter on my 92....should be similar to your 87(mk3 right)...the lines over the diff are hard, yes and it is kind of a pain in the butt trying to get them off of the filter, but going back from the filter...i was pretty sure that there is a rubber line that connects up to the hard fuel filter intake-line.

I would not see any reason to replace any lines past that filter...should of pretty much caught everything...probly get a new one of those though...and my fuel was dripping a little bit from around the filter before i replaced it...is this where yours leaks?

[Neurowiz]

Originally posted by bad7mgte
There's a fuel filter back there by the tank....sure that's not what you're looking at.
Second, hard lines as far as my experience goes....do not usually run all the way up to the top of the tank, they usually connect up with some flexible lines around the front or side of the tank.
I've replaced the fuel filter on my 92....should be similar to your 87(mk3 right)...the lines over the diff are hard, yes and it is kind of a pain in the butt trying to get them off of the filter, but going back from the filter...i was pretty sure that there is a rubber line that connects up to the hard fuel filter intake-line.

I would not see any reason to replace any lines past that filter...should of pretty much caught everything...probly get a new one of those though...and my fuel was dripping a little bit from around the filter before i replaced it...is this where yours leaks?

Hmm, interesting. The Chiltons says the fuel filter is in the tank and that the assembly by the differential is something called "dampener" or something like that. I don't have the Chilton's with me at work to look at.

I only saw the one leak and it was definitely coming from the hard line, looked like a fountain with the gas shooting out in a nice pretty stream.

I'm going to look at the condition of the other two lines going to the tank when I drop the tank - usually if one line is corroded, the others are close to it as well, just like brake lines. Ugh!

Thanks for the response!
Regards,
Michael

[Neurowiz]

I like to followup "request for help" posts with results of what happened - so here is my fix on the leaking fuel line.

As I originally posted, I had a busted fuel line - the main fuel line from the tank to the regulator. The whole line had rust on it, but the break happened where the hard fuel line connected to the plastic line that goes to the regulator. For whatever reason, Toyota puts a 1/2" nut connecting to the the fuel line, then has a plastic line in a rubber sleeve going to a banjo connector to the regulator. YUCK!

The line rusted out right before the connector, which is exposed to the ground. Fun for us "Nawtherners" with all the rust and corrosion - the nut from the hard line and the 1/2" nut on the plastic line was frozen solid. No amount of PB/vise grips would break them loose. I took a look at loosening the banjo connector so as to just replace the entire plastic line, but it was corroded frozen to the regulator and at this point, I didn't want to have to replace a lot of components just to patch the line. I cut the plastic line behind the nut with diagonal cutters, leaving me with about a 3" gap from the broken hard line to the plastic line.

To repair the line, I had to use 5/16" fuel injection rubber hose and 4 small hose clamps. I used a mini tube cutter to remove the corroded part of the hard line. The 5/16 "patch" hose slid with some pushing onto the hard line, and I used a hose clamp to tighten it down. I would have liked to have used two clamps, but I was very close to a bend and could only get one on. I carefully tightened it up so as not to crush the line inside.

The other side, I slid the rubber sleeve up the plastic line to expose the line, then slid the plastic line into the "patch". Here, I was able to use two hose clamps to tighten the patch down. This was tricky, I didn't want to crush the plastic hose, but needed it tight enough that the fuel pressure wouldn't leak. I didn't get it tight enough the first time and had some leaking, but I tightened it a bit more and got it right. The rubber sleeve will slide up enough to give someone some working room.

Edit: I should also point out that when I paired up the hose clamps, I had one pointing left, one pointing right to equalize the grip. This was on advice from the NAPA guys and it makes sense.

Fixed and back on the road - a bit of a McGuyver fix but it works and we'll see how it holds up.

Recap the parts - 5/16" fuel injection rubber hose (it's good up to 50psi, I think the fuel injectors run at 30?), 4 small hose clamps

Tools - mini tube cutter, nut driver (1/4" for the hose clamps), diag cutters to trim the patch hose and cut the plastic line.

Hope this helps someone!
Regards,
Michael