Fuel hard line through tinware - buyer beware

[Moseley]

A bit of a rant from me, and hopefully will avoid others having the same frustration. I recently purchased an off-the-shelf hard line to pipe the fuel hose through the front engine tinware, as I’d previously been using a small barb, which wasn’t really ideal. What I received differed somewhat to the catalogue pictures offered. Whilst the pipe vaguely follows the correct directions, the use of large radius bends that weren’t at the right angles meant the part needed a bit of tweaking to make it fit without rubbing anything. Add to that, the ends had been crudely cut with a hacksaw and not de-burred - an accident waiting to happen if not rectified.

Now I appreciate this is a cheap part, but I bought it because I don’t own any pipe benders, so selling something that is pre-bent but requires tweaking kind of defeats the object...

In my case, the vendor offered a refund if I returned it, so I can’t fault that. But they were keen to point out that this is how they all come from the supplier. I have suggested that they should put photos of the actual item on their webpage, or at least a description of the actual work required to make the part fit, but whether that will be heeded or not remains to be seen. I can’t comment as to whether all the usual sources purchase from the same supplier.

For anyone thinking of purchasing one, my advice would be to buy a bender and some tube, and do it yourself.

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[gvee]

Good for you for sharing your words of warning.

Personally I got rid of the hard line and replaced it with metal, barbed fittings that accept fuel hose on either side of the tin. No special tools required, just costs a few more pennies for the parts

 

[Moseley]

I don’t mind cheap parts, but I expect to know when I’m purchasing cheap parts. With this, there was no warning, and I wonder how many will get fitted as they are and are slowly cutting their way through the unsuspecting owners’ fuel lines. If I was selling these, I would at least put a cautionary note to check the item before fitting on the webpage, but maybe I’m a bit more cautious!

What fittings are you using out of interest? I previously had a 6mm barb to barb through the grommet, but it was too short to get any grip on it whilst pushing a fuel hose on. In the end it became a 2 person job with someone else holding it in the engine bay whilst I pushed the other end on from underneath... far from ideal and left rubber hose directly above the J tube.

 

[mike202]

I have a hard line that I bought as a kit from VW Aircooled works. The hard line comes through the bulk head through a grommet and to the pump although there is a bit of rubber fuel line to join it to the pump inlet. It has been fine and I quite like the fact it seems a bit more robust than the rubber pipe as it comes through the bulkhead into the engine bay.
Where did you get your hard line from?

 

[Moseley]

It was from Machine7, but I’d imagine other vendors stock the same part rather than cutting and bending it themselves in-house. At some point I will purchase some benders and have a crack at making something more suited to the van, as I have another project that will require a full set of brake lines at some point.


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