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5,352 Posts
Talk about a flail, try changing the fuel filter on a '97 GTS.
First day we tried it we finally had to pull back the inner fender wall
to obtain reasonable access and once we got there
neither me (6' 1" 240#) or my brother (6' 4" 250#) had the strength
the push in the tab on the erroneously named "Quick Connect" fitting.
After trying a few hours we put it back together.
Went back to the shop and spent an evening designing
and the fabricating a special tool to push in the tabs.
On the second attempt, fender wall pulled back, another 1/2 hour required
to fine tune the special tool, and finally managed to unhook the fuel filter
from the fuel line. Everthing went fine after that.
Total time spent, including tool fabrication, about 7 hours.
You'd think an engineer could design a fitting that disconnects quickly
and without having to build a special tool to make it work.
Also you would think that a frequently replaced item like a fuel filter
would be placed somewhere where it could actually be reached in the event
that it needed to be changed out in the field.
There, done venting.
First day we tried it we finally had to pull back the inner fender wall
to obtain reasonable access and once we got there
neither me (6' 1" 240#) or my brother (6' 4" 250#) had the strength
the push in the tab on the erroneously named "Quick Connect" fitting.
After trying a few hours we put it back together.
Went back to the shop and spent an evening designing
and the fabricating a special tool to push in the tabs.
On the second attempt, fender wall pulled back, another 1/2 hour required
to fine tune the special tool, and finally managed to unhook the fuel filter
from the fuel line. Everthing went fine after that.
Total time spent, including tool fabrication, about 7 hours.
You'd think an engineer could design a fitting that disconnects quickly
and without having to build a special tool to make it work.
Also you would think that a frequently replaced item like a fuel filter
would be placed somewhere where it could actually be reached in the event
that it needed to be changed out in the field.
There, done venting.