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Long - but worth it I hope!
I figured I owed this most righteous board some answers as I've posted a lot of questions lately due to recent purchase of 97 Anniversary with all new gremlins to fix. Yeah I know - I do love it...
OK, I recently posted a question re a hum coming from the rear which I narrowed down to fuel pump or fuel filter and had it confirmed by my fellow countryman and Anni owner, the great and good Bill Davies, that it was the fuel pump.
I have a spares car with good working pump but I remember the pain i went through a few years ago attempting to remove the ring so did some digging.
I found the instructions ( link below) on making a homemade fuel pump ring removal tool and, with mods, it worked really well (remember as I am pulling one of a spares car I had to do this twice!)
The instructions call for ply, which would have been stronger (3/4" thick marine ply ideally) but all I could find was some pine.
I followed the instructions but found that the curved portion in the middle needed to be higher as otherwise it fouled on the fuel pipe retaining clip, so I made the hole square and raised it another 1/4" higher.
My procedure and Tips I learned doing the job: (no previous knowledge assumed).
First things first - remove fuse 14 from the fuse array in the passenger footwell. Now keep trying to start the car until it stops almost starting, so you reduce the fuel pressure. Now disconnect the battery. You will have your head over a gas tank and really don't want to discover a previously unknown bad connection that causes a spark in the neighbourhood of the gas tank...
Clear your boot/trunk. There are two screws holding the fixed portion of the trunk floor in place, which are just an inch or two past the hinge that allows you to gain access to the spare wheel.
With the two screws removed (don't just loosen them, remove them), undo the catch that you use to open the trunk floor and holding the lid, ease it side to side as you are pulling gently towards you. The flooring will ease itself free. Keep this handy as you'll need this in a moment.
Now you can see an aluminium access hatch with two grey allen key holes. these are just twist catches so turn them 90 degrees (either way works)and remove them.
The hatch needs to be lifted from your nearest edge and lifted up as two protruding tabs attach it to the chassis on the back of the seats. A big fat black cable runs through this hatch through a grommet so feed the hatch up the cable and out of the way.
Although I've not seen it mentioned in other posts, I removed the black metal trim piece that runs across the bottom of the back seats, held by three torx screws.
The pump is covered by a piece of thin plastic which is more briuttle than 1 micron thin glass. Just move it out the way.
You will now see a typical saab electrical connector in the cable. I could not figure out how to remove the connector that connects to the actual pump, but I did not need to so I just disconnected the one in the cable and left the couple of inches of cable there.
It may be easier to remove the fuel pressure and return lines untiul after you have removed the ring, but I removed them first in case the pump turned as I was turning the ring.
These two barbs are brittle and easy to break, so I doused the whole assembly in hot-not boiling - water but was careful not to let the water overflow onto the electrical connector. I then sprayed WD40 and let it run down the barbs to ease removal. I gripped each barb and pulled directly up and they both came out fine.
Now to the Andy-modded Super ring removal tool! I drilled a hole about half way up the wood and used the Saab wheel brace to provide leverage.
I also used a big pair of water pump pliers to apply leverage to the other side too.
Once it starts moving, be patient and move the ring one step at a time until it is finger tight(loose?).
Remove the ring and do a little dance, that was the hardest bit!
Now lift up the pump and manouver the pump out of hole. I've seen posts that say you should lift it up 2 inches and turn it 90 degrees clockwise but I couldn't get that to work, so I just reached around the pump lip once it was raised a little and just eased it out the hole with the level rod in line with the alignment mark on the right hand side of the hole and it came out.
You are supposed to have planned all this well in advance and purchased a new o ring but I didn't and re-used it. I liberally sprayed WD40 onto a cloth and carefully dabbed at the tons of grit and crap around the pump hole to make it easier to reassemble being REALLY careful not to let any drop into the tank. I also did the same with the replacement pump and the ring (but you won't need to do this if you're fitting a new pump obviously).
Now fit the new O ring (smartypants) to the fuel tank hole or the cleaned up O ring that doesn't look like it fits anymore cos it has swelled with gas if you are not smart like me.
Now the replacement pump. Feed the rod with the black thingy in first and ease the pup into the hole. It will go if you feed it in from the right and ease it in.
Don't push down too hard as it needs to fill with gas first before it will sink and settle in the hole. Leave it in place and go and have a cup of tea/coffee.
All refreshed?
Pump should have settled now so time to fit the Pump ring. You did clean all the grit and umscar out of the threads and lubed it with WD40 or similar, didn't you?
Tighten the ring by hand until you need the tool again and tighten it up. I noticed the pump had a tendancy to try and twist itself, so with your third hand try and hold the pump so the alignment dash (-) is inline with the dash to the right of the hole.
Good and tight? Now lube the hole and the barbs with WD40 and reconnect the fuel pressure and return pipes. The one with the white cap goes to the top (nearest the seat backs). Remember they are brittle so press them down firmly exactly on top of the barb directly above the hole. Push them down until the retainer clip pops over them.
Home run now...
(Deep breth)Now reconnect the electrical connector, refit the brittle plastic cover, reattach the oval aluminium hatch, replace the black metal trim piece that fits over the bottom of the rear seats, refit the trunk floor, refit fuse 14 and start the car.
Hurrah!
Please note that by replacing the fuel pump, you will stir up any crap in the bottom of your tank, so a good idea to change your fuel filter once that tank is used up.
Yeah I know I ramble on, sorry, but I did loads of research on this board and other places to understand what I was doing and figured someone would make use of a detailed description all in one place.
Many thanks to all the advice already posted on this board.
Kind regards
Andy (West London)
posted by 90.204.87...
DIY Fuel pump removal tool instructions
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