fuel needle valve safer removal after screw-up and fix

[Andrew Vanis]

So the fuel needle valves were a bear to get off this time. so much gunk that even after ultrasound I needed vicegrips just to hold onto them. Said vicegrips deformed the valve housing which resulted in the pin not spinning freely and hanging up (luckily I checked before reassembly.

The deformed housings were restored by careful 13/64 drill bit on a drill (notice the bit of tape to prevent going in too for)




The fourth one, I wanted to get smart so tried 3 different C clips (from the local True Value) so I could just lightly clamp the clip and 1) not deform the housing and 2) the force in theory would spread the force around and 3) most important - it would provide a way to pull the housing with minimal crushing force since the clip will nest in the grove and the vicegrips only need to hold the clip in the vicegrip groves lightly. the retaining clip that required the clip pliers (the one on the right in the pic) worked best and got the toughest housing out






This vice grip picture is one one of the other C clips that did't work as well but you get the idea.

[loud et]

Now THAT is a keeper trick.
E clip. Nice.
One time I slightly out of rounded one of my needle bodies so I used the butt end of the appropriate size drill bit. I chucked it up backwards in a drill and used some valve grinding compound to help hone it ever so slightly to allow the needle to spin freely.
Whatever it takes sometimes.