%$#& Fuel Water Separator!

Today we tried an experiment. We tried to make a video… And we figured out that we are not the Wynns… We will never be YouTube stars. I can’t stop cursing long enough to make a video that isn’t all bleeps. Oh well. Of course I should mention that today probably wasn’t a fair shake due to the misery that I subjected myself to. You see I decided to change the fuel water separator and clean out the prefilter. For those that don’t know, this is a fuel water separator type filter and is very easily accessible. It has a normal oil filter type filter and then a metal bowl that goes on the bottom. Super easy, how hard is it to change an oil filter right?

Beaten and Bruised But Finally Loose

Beaten and Bruised But Finally Loose

Holy crap. I spent hours trying to pry that thing off with all manner of tools. The metal bowl spun off easily enough but the filter itself would not spin off the top. I spent hours cursing the mechanics at Cummins who last touched the system in 2010. I broke 2 rubber strap wrenches, I stabbed the filter with all manner of screwdrivers and prybars. I used vice grips and all manner of tools to try to extricate the demon filter all to no avail. Finally I gave up in disgust with a sore shoulder and went to Harbor Freight where I found the magic tool that won the battle. A long handled oil filter wrench. It looks more like a giant pair of pliers and this thing is really cool. It actually works with pretty much every filter we have to change on any vehicle. So alas the job is now done and after yet another educational scare where I learned about the Cummins automatic fuel vent all is well. (It dumps fuel on the ground - or your swiftly placed drain pan once the air is purged)

The Winning Tool

The Winning Tool

We still have to change the main fuel filter but since I’m not doing that after the nightmare day it I just wanted to get fuel back in the system. Phew. It’s always the easy jobs right? The funny thing is for all the cursing I did about Cummins I had to overtighten the new one exactly the way they did. You see the metal fuel bowl has a pipe that connects to a drain solenoid and basically the bowl on the bottom has to be aligned precisely the right way. The only way to get that alignment is overtightening 12 a turn.