Regarding the '99 Blazer in my sig:

I had my fuel lines next to the tank rot enough to leak, so I am replacing them. I have new factory lines ( cause I didn't feel like making them myself ), I dropped the tank, cleaned everything up, and am ready to reinstall.

My quest for tips is - what is the best way to snake/force/encourage the pre-bent factory lines through the maze of frame/body mount/other crap without kinking or bending them all to heck?

I tried to be creative when pulling them out to see which way was best, but I still had to bend or force them here and there.

It looks like I could pop out a body mount or two and make it easier by allowing access from outside the frame rail.

Any constructive suggestions are sincerely appreciated.

Also, does anybody need or want pics of any of this? When I searched this topic, there was some discussion, but not much else.

The job is not difficult, just time consuming with tough access to most of the bits.

The reason they rotted was that junk collects on top of the frame next to the tank where the lines run. Salt and moisture and time and there you go. Just like others have said.

Thanks!

 

If you can get the bolts out for the body mounts, I would definitely pull them to get them out of the way. I have never done this, but have seen where they are once the engine is out of the way and i would not wish it on anyone to have to replace them with the motor in there.

 

I'm asking about the lines next to the fuel tank, they disconnect next to the tcase and I'm replacing everything from there back.

I pulled the three body mount bolts between the two wheels, the front two came out fine, the one in front of the rear wheel broke. I want to see if just those three will allow me to pull the rubber isolator out of the center side one ( the only one that is really in the way ).

You can easily see that these lines were installed on the frame before the body drop in manufacturing. They're a pain.

I figure the mount where I broke the bolt off - I'll just cut the rest of the mount off and either vise grip it, or weld a nut on what's left. After PB Blasting the heck out of it.

Damn thing was, the brake line was rusty too, now I need to replace that as well. I'll just make my own line, double flaring and bend by hand as best I can.

 

Ok, i thought you were replacing it all the way up to the engine... Sucks that you broke a body mount bolt. Hopefully you do not spin the cage nut in the body when you try to remove what is left of that bolt.

 

Just in case anybody is interested, I'll update the progress on my fuel line replacement.

When I last posted a month ago, I discovered I broke my brake line in the process of cleaning things up ( all four lines were very rusty on top of the frame rail next to the fuel tank ). I decided to pull the body mounts next to these lines to make it easier to fish the new ones in, but broke one of the bolts off.

I left it alone for a couple of weeks while I was thinking about how to fix it and formulate a plan of attack. The body bolt that broke was right in front of the rear wheel.

Enough waiting - This weekend I pulled the back two mounts, the one over the axle and the one at the rear. I had read some other posts here or elsewhere where some folks experienced breakage when hammering on a wrench to get them loose. These bolts are pretty hard, 10.8 I think, and since they rust it might only makes things worse. I originally used an impact since I like to think I am slightly above pounding on wrenches, which may have been too much for the bolt that broke.

So for the remaining two I simply used my breaker bar and went REALLY carefully. Both came out without a problem. Yea - celebrate with a beer or three...

Feeling rather cocky now, I jacked up the body a bit by placing some wood blocks at a few places that looked strong under the body and separated the body from the frame a bit to get some clearance at the side body mount where I broke the bolt off. It wasn't rusty up near the body, only right by the head. I sawzalled (I'm an engineer and can make a verb out of anything - damnit) the stud so I could muscle/beat/pound the body mount out to get access, but I left enough to grab on to.

I couldn't find my stud remover, so I tried visegrips, but they kept slipping. Since the others had thread locker on them, I simply heated the stud a LITTLE with a torch and just like that, unscrewed it.

I got the rest of the lines that I am replacing out, cleaned it up even better and called it a day.

Without the body mounts in the way and the body lifted a little, looks like it will be really easy to slip the lines in there. I'll let you know what the results are when and if I get to it again this week.