I just replaced the fuel inlet hose at the gas tank. I think everyone who has done this knows how much fun it was. The hose is in place and sealed up fine. I did the job without pulling the engine and the firewall was tight coming out. Anyone have any suggestions on getting the firewall back in, all tips and tricks considered.
Thanks, Bart
78 Bay FI 2.0L Reinstalling firewall
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Bart1958
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Sat Sep 05, 2009 12:02 pm
Re: 78 Bay FI 2.0L Reinstalling firewall
Answered my own question.
The problem is when the panel is vertical there is no room to fit it in.
FIX
1- With everything out of the way, set the panel down behind the tin at the flywheel end of the motor.
2-Bend the 3 metal clips at the top where the firewall has to end up. Bend them up out of the way.
3- Pull the bottom of the firewall out enough to get it to drop down a little. This gives enough room at the top to barely get the panel in place.
4- The trick was to make something for the top of the firewall to slide on as you push it back into place. If not it will catch on the clips. I used an old coolant bottle, I cut it into 3 shims to go between the top of the firewall and the bottom of the body where it was so tight. I sprayed some WD 40 on the plastic bottle shims and it made them even more slippery.
5- Yes it was still tight but it pushed right into place. It sounds a bit easier on paper than it really was actually doing it.
6- Everything went in without having to make shift and bend up my cooling tin.
Side Note: The reason this was necessary is while rebuilding the engine on the Bus I wanted to take care of all the incidentals including the filler neck. My choice for the neck was a corrugated tube with a steel wire laced into it. My suggestion is never to use that type of filler tube. After just a short time I found the wire can easily keep you from getting a good seal at the tank, probably because the tank neck is so short. Also, although I know that pulling the engine back out could have made the job easier in some ways I did prove that it could be done in a pinch with out pulling it. One other thing, the very best lubricant I found for putting the new tube in was just a bit of baby powder, slid right on.
The problem is when the panel is vertical there is no room to fit it in.
FIX
1- With everything out of the way, set the panel down behind the tin at the flywheel end of the motor.
2-Bend the 3 metal clips at the top where the firewall has to end up. Bend them up out of the way.
3- Pull the bottom of the firewall out enough to get it to drop down a little. This gives enough room at the top to barely get the panel in place.
4- The trick was to make something for the top of the firewall to slide on as you push it back into place. If not it will catch on the clips. I used an old coolant bottle, I cut it into 3 shims to go between the top of the firewall and the bottom of the body where it was so tight. I sprayed some WD 40 on the plastic bottle shims and it made them even more slippery.
5- Yes it was still tight but it pushed right into place. It sounds a bit easier on paper than it really was actually doing it.
6- Everything went in without having to make shift and bend up my cooling tin.
Side Note: The reason this was necessary is while rebuilding the engine on the Bus I wanted to take care of all the incidentals including the filler neck. My choice for the neck was a corrugated tube with a steel wire laced into it. My suggestion is never to use that type of filler tube. After just a short time I found the wire can easily keep you from getting a good seal at the tank, probably because the tank neck is so short. Also, although I know that pulling the engine back out could have made the job easier in some ways I did prove that it could be done in a pinch with out pulling it. One other thing, the very best lubricant I found for putting the new tube in was just a bit of baby powder, slid right on.
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DannyK
- Posts: 551
- Joined: Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:50 pm
Re: 78 Bay FI 2.0L Reinstalling firewall
Thanks for posting your experience. I may have to do the same on my '79.