I posted a message a few weeks ago about repairing the quick connect fuel lines found on many Ford and Mazda vehicles. I was attempting to replace my fuel filter and simply could not get one side of the fuel filter to come loose no way no how. I was asking if anyone new where I could find a replacement fitting or repair kit. Well, NAPA auto stores sells a whole line of these for virtually any vehicle. The kit contains the quick connect fitting attached to about 18 inches of fuel line and a connecting barb for splicing the fuel lines together. You have to know your existing nylon fuel line size as they come in various sizes.

I removed my fuel filter Sunday afternoon by cutting my existing short seciton of nylon fuel line and disconnecting the one side I could. The instructions say to warm the tubing supplied with the kit in warm water and slide the barb in. You also do this to your existing fuel line. No clamps are supplied. The quick-connect fitting worked fine, fit perfectly into the replacement filter and no leaks but the spliced line is another story. The high pressure of the fuel pump is too much for the connection and both sides of the splice leaked. I tried putting small clamps on both sides but it still leaks. My clamps may have been a bit big and I am going to try smaller clamps as soon as I can find some but so far my truck is sitting home, unable to be driven, with a leaking fuel line. Any other ideas on how to stop a leaking fuel line at the splice?

 

Well, short of pouring about a cup of black peper in the gas tank, I think hose clamps are about your only (cost effective) option.

BTW - I'm kidding about the pepper

Mike.

 

Are those splicers meant for fuel lines or AC lines? The quick connects are used on both, I don't know which would have higher pressures. Personally, I wouldn't take the chance on my truck and would just shell out for the new fuel line.

-Jim

 

Your Ford dealer also sells repair parts for the black fuel lines. Barbed fittings and unions and stub fuel line with different fittings. LOTS cheaper than the whole fuel line assembly, let me say, which is how they wanted to fix my car. Over $300 for the assembly, from tank to pressure regulator. No thanks...
tom

 

Don't get me wrong, I'd try the fix first, but if I turned the car on and saw gas coming down after I tried to clamp it, $300 and doing it right is worth the non-firey death.

-Jim

 

Here's an update on the repair to my fuel line. First off, I talked to several Ford and Mazda dealers in my area and they all stated they too have used the quick connect repair kits and it was one of them who gave me a hint on what to do. These kits are available at Pep Boys, NAPA and other places. They come with a replacement quick connect fitting attached to a length of fuel line and a barb for connecting the two fuel lines - your old one you cut and the new one. No clamps are included, the barb is supposed to hold. I cut my old line and spliced it but the line leaked at both sides of the barb. With the leak I parked the vehicle. I was not about to drive a car with a leaking fuel line. One dealer told me he has used the kits and he too had the leaking problem. He found the barb was too small for the existing Ford/Mazda 5/16 fuel line and suggested I go to a home improvement store and get a 5/16" i.d. barb fitting that is slightly larger than the supplied barb. I did. This barb was much harder to install. You have to heat the tubing (both the supplied tubing and that on the vehicle) in hot water to soften but once the barb went on and the tubing cooled it was tight and there is no removal. For added protection I installed high pressure fuel rail clamps. This splice is just as secure and strong as any other fuel connection on the vehicle.

These quick connect repair kits work but make sure the barb you use is large enough to hold. As I found, the ones supplied are not.

Although this fix appears to be working fine, with all the bending and flexing I did on the existing fuel line on my truck, I do plan to replace the line from the tank to the fuel filter with a new one. I've ordered one from the dealer ($90) and my next question is do I pull the bed or drop the tank to install it. I'm just afraid I may have weaked the existing flexible line by bending it and it could burst sometime.

 

Great information and good work, but I am definitely glad to know that you will be replacing the entire line. For $90 it really isn't worth the hassle. I have had good luck with www.mazdastuff.com in getting good prices on Mazda/Ford parts. Richard there is a real help. But it sounds like you have it from a dealer already.

Maybe the quick connect will be a little more friendly next time.

-Jim

 

Since almost all of the fuel pipes and brake pipes are now metric an oetiker clamp would be perfect for reinforcing the hose repair that you describe. Measure the OD (outside diameter) of the hose with the barb fitting in place and then when you put it together for final assembly, while it is still warm, clamp it with an oetiker clamp. Use a clamp that is about 2mm larger than the assembled barb and hose. If you only need a few oetiker clamps you can purchase them individually at Belmetric. (www.belmetric.com) Belmetric also has those fuel hose screw clamps that have a radius edge that doesn't dig into the covering layer of the hose. These were the hose clamps that were used on the early Bosch fuel injector units that were on late model Mexican Beetles and the early Golf cars (Rabbits).
You will need a special squeezing pincer to close the oetiker clamps but you can also use a 19th century nail pincer that farriers use to pull nails out of horse's hoofs. Carpenters used it also to pull rectangular cut nails from tongue and groove floor boards.
These are the same type of clamp used with the new PEX water pipe. It too has to be heated or an expander is used before putting in the fitting. You should be able to see the barbs through the outer surface of the tube. The barbs form bumps on the outer surface. You can find use instructions on YouTube. The oetiker crimping tool is available on Amazon as well as repair kits but some of the barbed fittings are smaller than the ID of the tube. I would take a sample of tube with me and go to a hardware store or home center to get the correct size barbed fitting. I think stuff that is advertised as 3/8 or 5/16 are actually metric and the unions are under sized.
Some additional information about adding heat. The nylon 12 tube acts like heat shrink tubing. You have to heat it in order to get the fitting inside the tube, but then additional heat should be supplied and it is supposed to shrink the tube onto the barbed fitting. I suspect that over time, the original tube will also shrink to some degree over much of its length if it is exposed to heat. This could be what another poster experienced where the return pipe was between the tank and the truck bed. Note also that these lines or tubes are actually metric not SAE sizes, i.e. measured in millimeters (mm) not inches. Use a micrometer with a digital readout and measure all this stuff in mm. When shopping get the stuff that actually measures in mm. Soon there is going to be a new fuel tube because the nylon 12 is not compatible long term with the alcohol modified fuels. Maybe that is causing the leaks. If you don't like it write to your Congressional rep. There is not much research that actually supports the use of alcohol in gasoline and it really caused total fuel consumption to go up.

 

I just went through doing this on my 86 ranger. Thanks to the fuel line being chewed on. I used a heat gun to make the line soft to push the line on to the hose barb. I had no leaks when done this way.