So my new engine has been running pretty good but it's got a bad cold start and just isn't running perfect all the time, figured I could start by changing the dizzy cap and the fuel filter, its got over 300k on it and the fuel filter may have never been changed for all I know. So I ordered one, put it in, threads went on fine and tightened down like normal with about 2 threads sticking out of each side, and leak city as soon as I started it. The leak changed in volume as I tightened the fittings and moved the filter with the hardlines still tight but it would never stopped. I swapped it out for anotber fuel filter I had laying around, slow leak out both threads. Put the old one back in, slow leak out both threads. The fittings are not stripped or damaged, they thread in no problem at all. But I do notice my truck lacks the bracket/shield for the filter, probably the nefarious 2nd owner of the vehicle "deleted it", there's a bunch of sketchy things on this 4runner from him. I'm just wondering in that bracket somehow aligns the lines properly so the flow is perfectly straight? Cause I'm kinda losing it on this one, this was supposed to be a quick maintenance thing and now my trail rig is down again while I have places to go. Thanks in advance guys if anyone knows about this. I can go get one at the junkyard its just that i was there 2 days ago and hate spending my tine off there.

 

Did you replace the crush washers, instead of reusing them?

The crush washers in these trucks are NON-reusable. If you replace the fuel filter, new washers. If, for whatever reason, you need to then pull it off and put it back on, new washers. Put the old one back in? New washers.

ANY time you remove a fuel fitting that has a crush washer on it, new washer. It's a real good idea to go to the dealer, and get a bunch of crush washers any time you go to work on any part of the fuel system that uses them. It's easy to go through a bunch of crush washers very quickly. It's a good idea to have a bunch on hand before you start.

Good luck to you!
Pat☺

 

There are no crush washers on the 3VZE fuel filter (at least on my '94) https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...62/index2.html There are flare fittings (with flare nuts) on each end. I believe the 22re does use banjo bolts on its (much more accessible) filter, in which case 2ToyGuy is absolutely correct.

To answer Saturn's question, I'm pretty sure the bracket has nothing to do with "alignment." Instead, I'll ask if you used a flare-nut wrench to remove the filter, or just a plain-ole crescent wrench? In my limited experience, I've found that using a plain wrench on a brass flare nut has the tendency to bend it into a slight ellipse. If you've bent the flare nut even slightly, it will still screw together, but it will leak. (I've had to replace lengths of brake line having made that mistake.) I don't know any simple way to fix that; the fuel line has the end flare put on after the nut is threaded over the line, so you may have to replace a whole section. There exists an end-end coupling; you might be able to cut the line in the middle, thread on a three flare nuts, flare both cut ends, and attach them back together. But flaring old tubing while lying under your truck may be more work than just fabricating a whole new section.

Good luck!

 

Scope103,
Have you any tricks for loosening really buggered flare nuts. It seems like removing the bracket and using a vise grip is only going to make the nut/s that much worse. The PO for my rig had absolutely ruined the 9/16" (14mm) hex shape on the tube adapter and I cannot even start to think about sliding my crows foot flare nut socket onto them. As the filter looks to be 29 years old it is high time for a new one.

So I am very much thinking I will have to redo the fuel line/s at each end of the filter and get new adapters that thread into the filter and re-flare the tube after splicing in new lengths as needed. This is standard fuel grade seamless tubing and that the OD will be the number for sizing this stuff. This is an area I have not ventured into for a long time but I do have a flaring tool and tubing cutter left over from a time I was making an onboard air system out of a Sanden AC compressor on my 22R many years ago. From that time I seem to recall hydraulic tubing is more SAE based with english inch fractional sizing. So if this supply line from the pump to the filter is approximately 1/4" ID that is basically 6mm or maybe 5/16" (8mm) for the OD. But where does one get the male threaded adapters that thread into the filter? McMaster-Carr doesn't seem to have male threaded versions for this stuff that are like those adapters. But I have found seamless general purpose and mil spec tubing that is 1/4" ranging in wall thickness from 0.02" to 0.083" and I am thinking the 0.035" wall thickness tube is the right one for the fuel line. It looks like this stuff is decided by OD which is easy to measure with a caliper and there is 1/4" 5/16" and 3/8" with various wall thicknesses so I shall have to take measurements and see what is what!... Once that is realized perhaps I can get an idea what size the threads are in the new WIX fuel filter I have had for several months now? If the filter will receive a standard 37° precision AN straight connector fitting and I could get some female flare nuts with tubing sleeves then re-flare the existing fuel line tube with these inplace after I have cut off the existing flares and removed the ruined male threaded adapters? This could be a really clean fix for ruined flare nuts and with old fuel filters that will not come apart. You have to love McMaster-Carr for parts bin engineering a solution. An SAE J514 spec. joint industrial council (JIC) metal to metal pair of joints seems a better one than putting in a rubber fuel line and barbed fittings to get this sorted out given that it is fuel injection and a relatively higher pressure than would be for a carburetor.