It came to my attention that little pot metal bracket holding the passenger side fuel line (right next to the passenger side corner of the turbo pedestal) can become of problem and start rubbing through the fuel line, eventually leading to a leak and a fun time in the garage replacing it. So what I did was get a little proactive and took a look at it yesterday thinking I might just remove it. It appeared to be an easy removal of a 13mm nut and off comes the bracket from the stud. What happened when I tried to put a socket on there and get it off was that it started to back the whole stud out and twist/mutilate the thin bracket. What I didn't realize because of all the crud built up is that there is another fitting underneath the top nut for a 1/2" open end, or whatever the metric size is. If you have a small stubby wrench with a narrow head thickness you can hold the bottom part and probably break the 13mm nut free. That didn't happen with me though. I ended up having to snip the bracket in half while trying not to damage the fuel line, bend the two pieces of metal up and unthread the whole stud.



Anyway that is what it looks like without the bracket. I suppose if you wanted to get fancy you could find another regular manifold bolt and use that instead of the stud/nut deal. I just put the nut back on finger tight. You can see the little flakes everywhere from doing battle with the bracket (lol). Fuel line seems okay. At least it will be hell of a lot easier to get out of there now if I ever have to.


What the devil is this little thing?


Clear the hammer lane, big 250 Hp coming though haha,.

 

Do you have a delete turbo pedestal?

 

Its a blank pedestal yes.

 

The really funny thing though is that particular sticker was a misprint for 1999. It should be "235".

 

Anyone know if there are any issues leaving the passenger side fuel line support bracket off? When I replaced my fuel line 1.5 years ago, I just left the bracket off. I sheathed the fuel line in wire loom. A few months ago I read on here that having that length of unsupported fuel line in the vibration beast that is a 444 would eventually crack the line. Just curious if I should be looking to rig something up in there?

 

I watched this Dieseltech Ron video and he said he always left it off when he replaced them.

 

Even on the ZF6 trucks? I know on the later 01-03's there was a different rating for the auto vs manual. 250/275 IIRC

 

There's People that run without the fuel line clamp with no problems,Our truck is clamp delete for 20k so far.

 

Thanks! Going to continue clamp free...

 

If worried about whatever International was worried about when they installed the fuel line bracket in the first place...

Then just put on a bigger bracket, with more wear protection between it and the fuel line.

Bigger bracket is on top. The original bracket sits just below it, for size comparison:




Bigger bracket installed, with added wear protection:

 

I wrapped my fuel line in electrical tape and clamped it tight. IMO that is a long run for that fuel line and the engine does vibrate. Then I don't like those Parker Sleeve fuel connections on top of it. You may do fine with no bracke there though.

 

They're called "Vibra-Lok" for a reason though. John Deere had used them for decades on their tractors and often made runs from the fuel pump to the fuel filter and back to the injection pump....all while going around the back side of the engine twice to make the connections between them..

Your results may vary but out of the three e-fuel 7.3L vehicles I have and a few of the pickups at work, none of them have the bracket anymore.

 

Nobody knows what that thing is in the second picture?

 

I don't have a clue.

 

I say a fooler to the gutted ebpv