I got the Jag all back together and, somewhat surprisingly, there are no gas leaks and the engine is purring like a kitten.

I thought I would post some helpful hints and pictures to help the next poor bloke that has to go through this.


So if I had to do it all over again here are the steps I would have taken..... This is the major steps and definitely doesn't include every detail.

1) Loosen lug nuts on rear drivers tire because you will be taking it off.

2) Jack the car up nice and *high* on both sides. USE JACK STANDS... your life is most definitely at risk while under the car - take extra precautions. In addition to the jack stands, I had hydrollic jacks (e.g. bottle) sitting in line with the jack stands to catch the car in case the jack stands fell/broke.

3)Use a creeper to roll under the car to where the parking brake cable "Y's". Look up and over the differential and you should see where the 2 metal fuel lines enter the tank. Spray PB Blaster into the ports with a long straw or whatever.

4) Remove all of the carpeting/finish stuff from the trunk so you can see the tank. It should be stripped of all of the carpet so you see all metal. Also remove the CD changer if you have one (this is required).

5) Remove the battery if you wish... Though I didn't. It is a safety call on your part, with gasoline vapors in the trunk area, a spark could really ruin your day. At the minimum disconnect the negative terminal and tuck it away so it cannot touch the battery. BUT NOTE.... that your tank is grounded (amongst every other metal thing in your car) and if the negative battery terminal touches any of that, your car is now hot again and it could spark.


6) Siphon as much gas as you can through the fueling port. You probably won't even get close to getting it empty with this method.

7) climb in the trunk and loosen/remove the straps holding the tank in and remove the other wiring connectors,retaining "ring" holding the fuel port to the rubber surround, hoses etc... that is needs to remove the tank.


8) Climb in the trunk and using a hammer and screwdriver tap the retaining ring on the evap flange and "remove" the retaining ring.

9) With the evap flange assembly loose you should be able to gently pry/lift it up enough to stick your siphon hose directly down in the tank. Siphon out all remaining gas. **** BE CAREFUL dealing with the evap assembly ***** the top has a bunch of light blue plastic couplings... If you break one, it is a ~$300 mistake to correct.

10) This is where the fun begins..... 1st of all don't pull on the tank or manipulate it in anyway. Now that the stuff you sprayed into ports at the start has been soaking awhile, use your fuel line quick disconnect tool(s) to try and get the fuel lines to release under the car. There are tons of posts about doing this so I won't cover them here.... Needless to say you need somewhat long BUT skinny arms to pull this off. If you can't do it, try to find someone who can (i.e. your wife etc...). IMO You REALLY should try this approach 1st before doing what I had to do.

11) did you get the lines to release? Great your on easy street now. Take the tank out of the trunk (read the details in the many other posts on the subject).... skip the next few steps.... didn't get them to release? Given up? Well you can try what I and others have done.... Completely remove the fuel filter (you did take the tire off right?). Ensure that both lines are removed from the white plastic "keepers" under the car so they are as free to move as possible.

12) Pull the tank out into the trunk.... This was not so easy on my car.... It involved some manipulation and ultimately have to pull a *bit* harder than I was comfortable with..... ****There are risks to this technique****. You could pull the lines out of the tank, damage/bend the ports etc.... basically find yourself in a spot where you cannot put the lines back into the tank without them leaking. If you find that you are not comfortable in pulling that hard or it just doesn't feel like you can pull the tank out any farther... you can explore other measures like cutting a hole in the "package" shelf or cutting the fuel lines under the car. You can find other approaches in the numerous posts on this topic.

13) If you have the whole tank out great.... I am jealous of you.... If you have the tank partially in the trunk, good enough... Just remove the rubber coupling hoses connecting the evap flange to the metal tank lines and take the evap assembly out. Again, be patient and use gentle manipulation to get the lines off... You don't want to break those plastic connectors!!!

The rest is pretty straight forward covered in depth in other posts/articles. Basically, take out the old pump put in the new one.... I do have a couple of suggestions though....

Before you even put anything back into the tank, connect up the evap flange pump connector and the fuel pump connector(s).... so that it is wired up exactly like it would be in the tank. Turn your jag key to run and then connect the battery terminal(s) in the trunk. ****another word of caution here**** I repeatedly used a big piece of cardboard to "fan" out any gas vapors hanging around in the tank before I connected up the battery... it WILL spark and you could be in the local burn hospital if you are not careful.

When the battery terminal is connected and with the key in the on position, the pump should spin for 5 seconds or so. If it doesn't, troubleshoot the wiring/fuse problem. If you think your brand new pump is bad, directly wire it up to the battery to make sure.

If the pump runs, great. I disconnected the battery terminal doing this test many times; jiggling all of the connections to make sure there wasn't going to be an intermittent connection problem in the tank.

Before you put in your new pump etc... in the tank, have a look down in it. I had a little puddle of nasty looking stuff in mine... some metalic stuff, some just dirt etc.... I put a magnet down in the tank to pick up metallic stuff and used a squeeze bottle to suck up the rest of the crap in the puddle down there.

In particular, I used a squeeze bottle like gold panners use to suck up gold out of their pan. See the picture below for the crap I got out.... It is probably not good for the health of the pump to have metal "grit" et al running through it.

Also, goes without saying... since you've gone this far don't be cheap and not buy a new strainer with the new pump. They are $20 and you are extremely foolish to try and use the old one.


That's about it... Pictures are below.

Picture descriptions:

Bottle showing what I sucked out of the bottom (sump area) of the tank. Pretty black and completely opaque.

New fuel pump mounted in the orignal bracket. Some others mentioned issues with the airtex pump (got from autozone) not fitting right and having to trim the rubber bushings, perhaps I have a newer model but the new pump fit into the bracket with the jag original rubber bushings perfectly. Nice tight and solid fit.

Tank in the trunk... This is as far as I could pull it with the lines still connected; which was penty far enough.

 

@RonMexico - Maybee I missed it but how did you detach your lines? Did you cut the lines?

 

I pulled the tank into the trunk... Step 12.....

 

Hello Sir,
could you tell me where the fuel filter is located and how long it took to change?

 

It located in the LH front wheel well towards the back of the car. There's 2 bolts on the bottom of the car remove those and pull the plastic lining back and you'll see it. It's either held in by a 10mm or an 8mm I can't remember exactly