The last time I had a few minutes to work on the wagon, I had figured out how to get the starter to kick over, but I had a fuel delivery issue that popped up out of nowhere. Last Thursday, for whatever reason, the fuel lines seemed clear, and the car started just fine! I checked the trans fluid, (overfilled it), and it was idling so well, Idecided to go for a test drive! It was GREAT to have her under her own power for the first time since the return trip from FFO in July of '11. The test drive was going so darn well, I decided to chance it, and drive the car on back roads the 4 miles home.
When I got home, I paused in the driveway to get out & punch in the code for the garage door. When I got back to the car, I saw a puddle. I pulled into the garage & shut 'er down. I quickly had another puddle, and I didn't have to get too close to smell GASOLINE!
After everything I did (brown wire fix, replacing the starter relay, replacing the ignition relay, re-adjusting the 'seat' of the wiring loom on the top of the fuse box, replacing the overheated fuse for the ignition circuit, and replacing a perfectly good fuel pump), the last darn problem was rotted fuel lines. This explained my fuel delivery issues. The steel fuel lines run inside the passenger compartment, right along the driver's side door sill. At the forward edge of the driver's door, the fuel lines turn upwards to go into the engine bay through the firewall. At that upward bend on the floor, all three lines were severely rusted - but only right there. I decided to cut out the bad sections and 'patch' with regular fuel line. Not a permanent fix, but it’d get me past this leaky issue.
I remembered a gassy smell in the inside of the car last summer, so the lines have been on the verge of collapse for a long time. I'm sure that when I applied an electric fuel pump to help prime the system, it caused the return line to 'give', which caused this 'interesting situation' on the wagon's 4 mile ride home. The floor of my garage caught whatever was in the return line, and while not much real volume - the inside of my house was poisonous in short order!
Clyde was NOT pleased. Nor were the neighbors.
I pulled out the under-carpet insulation, which was SOAKED, and patched the lines. At that point I wiped out under the carpet with simple green (trying to fight the stench!), and I sopped up what was under the car, and then cleaned that with simple green also. The gasoline soaked insulation & rags are double-bagged in some old plastic Target bags, temporarily stashed in my grill on the patio.
What DOES one do with gasoline soaked rags?
You know, other than creating a big char mark in the yard?
No comments:
Post a Comment