Chrysler Sebring Day N+1

When we dropped the engine out of the car two months ago, not all of the lines had been properly disconnected. In particular, the fuel line hung us up, and in the excitement of the moment I elected to cut the dang thing instead of trying to figure out how to disconnect it. Today I paid for that rash action. $17 to be precise, for a plastic fuel line repair kit. Went by O'Reilly Auto Parts, because that was the last place that was helpful. I should have known better. I went by there yesterday to pick up a couple of hose clamps. They had them, which was good, but they were packaged in a blister pack and hanging on the display rack! That tells me it is a generic retail operation and not a real auto parts store. On the other hand I noticed that they had quite a selection of tools, including taps (tools for cutting screw threads in metal) which is something I would not normally expect to find in such a place.

Anyway, they couldn't help with my fuel line problem, so we headed over to NAPA. NAPA is not my favorite, their prices are generally a little higher and they are closed on Sundays, which sometimes interferes with my sinning. On the plus side, NAPA can get you what you need, even if it is obscure, or you screwed up by cutting a fuel line you didn't need to cut. And sure enough, they had a plastic fuel line repair kit.  All I really need from the kit is about four inches of tubing and the little metal ferrel. You know in the good old days, fuel line was either reinforced rubber hose, or copper tubing, and the one could be connected to the other with a simple hose clamp.Now we've got this plastic tube with funny plastic connectors on the ends. There's probably a million dollars worth of engineering in this part, but it only costs a nickel to make it, and then sell it for $17. The dealer probably wants $35, but it would be a snap to install. I still have some work to do to repair my fuel line using the kit I got from NAPA.

There's another factor in play here as well. Back in the good old days, fuel lines were suction lines. The fuel pump was on the motor, and it sucked the fuel from the tank in the back of the car. The pressure on the suction line was negative. Nowadays, we've got electric fuel pumps that produce something like 50 or 60 PSI (pounds per square inch) of pressure, which we need to keep the fuel injectors happy. So while a leak in an old time fuel line would make your car run poorly or not a all, a leak in a modern fuel line will spray gasoline everywhere, making a big cloud of explosive gas. Good thing fuel lines don't often leak.

Then there was the brake line. The line from the anti-lock brake unit to the right front wheel runs across the top of the front cross-member, which also supports the radiator. There are three little plastic clips that hold this line in place, and when we dropped the motor out, they did not want to let go and so they drug the brake line with them and reformed it into a new and more artistic shape. Which means it did not want to fit back where it was supposed to go. It still isn't right. I think I am going to need to stuff some rags between it and the frame so vibration doesn't wear a hole in it. That would be bad.

We did remember to disconnect the exhaust pipe when we dropped the engine. We did it by cuttting the exhaust pipe in half. If all goes well, I plan on taking it to the muffler shop and having them do a proper repair. Meanwhile, just to keep the exhaust pipe from dragging, and to keep the noise down to a dull roar, we patched the pipe with a piece of tin and a couple of hose clamps. It looks so good I might just leave it.


We misplaced one of the bolts that hold the A/C (air conditioning lines) to the compressor. Fortunately, I found one in my box-of-bolts. Unfortunately, it was an Allen head (uses a hex key). Fortunately, I just happened to have the right size metric Allen wrench with a 3/8 inch square drive. I had completely forgotten about it.

Back of the engine showing the power steering pump (blue), hoses (purple) and steering shaft and tie rod ends (yellow).

Also misplaced the screw that holds the power steering reservoir in place, which makes me think there is another jug of bolts hiding in the garage somewhere. The power steering was kind of a trick deal. By unfastening the reservoir, we were able to drop all the power steering stuff along with the engine. We did have to disconnect one hose briefly to disengage it from the aforementioned brake line. But that was all. After we got the engine out, we were able to remove the power steering pump from the engine. So we were able to remove all of the power steering from the engine without having to disconnect any of the hoses.