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2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission Broken Injector Overflow fuel line and roadside repair.

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OK, this is a little long. That said, Lit'l Bro and I were headed home from the annual Colorado elk hunt a couple days ago trying to beat some weather that makes high mountain passes no fun. Just east of Raton, NM I noticed smoke in the mirror. Watched it a moment, wasn't a tire, gauges looked fine then I smell diesel. We pull over at an abandon service station on the west side of Capulin NM, raise the hood and diesel is pouring out of the broken injector return line (line that connects on the side of all injectors and returns excess fuel to the top of the fuel filter housing) broke at number 3 injector.

It's almost dark, using flashlights we see no way to repair and no dealer or wrecking yards within 80 miles that we can find on the Iphone. I walk a couple hundred yards to a little store while Bro' prepares to sleep in the truck or unload the hastily loaded goose-neck trailer and try for a little sleep during the coming cold night with hope for better luck tomorrow.

Here's the good news, Capulin NM has good people and it has an RV park and combination antique shop/liquor store. The lady that owns and runs the store tried to find help by calling and finely sends her daughter to the local mechanics house when he didn't answer his phone. He shows up but doesn't have any way to help. Nice guy though. The shop owner then helps us find shelter for the night, the RV park has a couple of small cabins but the park owners are at a school function. When they made it back to the park, not only did they have a cabin for us, the husband (Chase) volunteered to pull the 95 dually with trailer attached about a half mile to the park and then when we couldn't make a sharp turn while in tow, he suggested unhooking from the trailer and then pulled the truck up next to the cabin so we could work on it, then spotted the trailer near-by. To top it off, next day he unlocked his shop for our use while he delivered on his rural mail route and even checked on us a couple times. GOOD PEOPLE!

Now for the fun part. Next morning in the light of day we discover the number 3 injector holddown nut had backed off a couple of turns letting the injector jump up. This constant flexing up and down caused the fuel return line to break at the side of the pillow block where the bolt attaches the line to the injector. I changed injectors 200,000 miles and 13 years ago,,,go figure.

To repair we pull number 3 injector, clean the coked up parts, (evidently this leak had gone unnoticed for a while and the heat and leaking fuel had caused a substantial mess). Once all the pieces were clean we re-installed the injector and tighten the injector hold down nut by feel (should be 44 ft. lbs. ). The broken return line was a challenge,,,our solution after much talk; take the filler tube out of a Bic ink pen, cut off about an inch and insert one in as deep as possible into the line pillow block and the rest into the line. Reassemble the line. Then with a bit of 3/8ths fuel hose from my tool box that's sectioned to decrease the diameter, we put it around the fuel line and put a 3/8th hose clamp on it and tighten. Then we fasten tie wire around the back side of the clamp and run to the base of #3 injector to keep pressure on the splice so it doesn't separate. To complete the repair, a Mug of Root-beer can is cut and a splash shield formed and placed to keep any leaking fuel away from the exhaust manifold and turbo.

With everything in place, truck fires on the first couple revolutions, we did have a very small fuel leak but looks not bad at all considering the repair.

The park owners wouldn't accept a tip in appreciation so I gift them a recently purchased book (Life in the Saddle by Frank Collinson) with an appropriate monetary gift tucked inside.

We then hit the road, and 12 hours and 700 miles later we're home. The good news is we're only 6 hours late since we'd planned on spending a night on the road, just not where we so luckily did. Best I can tell the leak basically went away while the truck was working, we may have used an extra 5 gallons of fuel on the trip home but that's pretty cheap compared to a towing bill and who knows how many days in hotels and eating in restaurants if we'd depended on dealers and mechanics what with ordering parts and getting in line.

I ordered a new line last night ($98) and will make the repair in a few days. It should be noted the only reason our MacGyver'ish roadside repair worked is the injector return line is low pressure (a few lbs).

While I wouldn't have wished the stress and worry on anyone, it was almost worth it to meet many good people in a little New Mexico town, population 48.

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Glad to hear 1. there are still good people still out there, 2. that everything worked out. Isn't great what we can come up with.
 
add them to the Christmas card mailing list... ... you dont see that kind of help much more, unlock the shop and take off like your family.
 
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